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Chapter Text

*RING*

And thus, it was another day at good old Metro City High School. Talon woke up from his power nap in his AP Calc class. He could catch up later, he already knew most of the content because of his math summer intensives. His goal was to become a physicist, and he needed to know his calculus to be able to survive at all in that kind of career. 

He stood up and gathered his materials and as he was making his way out of the classroom, he stumbled into a small blonde. 

“Watch where you’re going!” Talon exclaimed. 

Penny just looked at him. The bags under her eyes were getting worse by the day and at this point the bags had their own bags. Her hair was in her signature pigtails, but it looked like the left one had fallen out during class and she had too hastily put it back in lopsided. 

“Jeez Penn, you look awful.”

“Thanks Talon,” she rolled her eyes, “that makes me feel so much better. It’s not like I had to stay up late last night working on the impossible calc homework.”

“The calc homework was so easy though? All you had to do was derive the same equation until it reached a constant. How late did you even stay up to get those bags? They’re honestly pretty impressive.” 

Penny groaned, “I didn’t realize all I had to do was derive until I had already done 9 problems, so the last one was a breeze but I wasted a couple hours on the first 9. Why do you care about my sleep schedule, Mr. Calculus King?”

“I don’t actually, I was asking as a courtesy, but seeing as you woke up on the wrong side of the bed, I am revoking that courtesy.”

“I didn’t even wake up on any side of the bed,” Penny muttered before pushing her way past Talon and out of the classroom. 

Talon stared after her and followed her to their next shared class. One thing about AP classes is that they are small and since most of the same students took those classes, they would end up having very similar schedules. Luckily for Talon and Penny, their schedule was the exact same except for their elective class. Penny had chosen a creative writing class and Talon had engineering. 

Their next class was unfortunately not his saving grace class, engineering, but his least favorite: English. Talon couldn’t help trudging his feet to the next class. He was okay at English, but he had to actually pay attention and he was tired enough that it would be a challenge for him to not dose off. 

Meanwhile: 

Penny was too tired to care about Talon’s jabs about her eyebags. She did not care what she looked like right now, all she cared about were her grades (and they were not lacking). Luckily her next class was one of her best classes and she could take a little nap during their class reading. Mr. Quimby liked her and never called on her because she had proven her English chops her first week of classes. 

She walked into the class and made her way to her seat on the far left back side of the classroom. She liked sitting in the closer end of the room in all of her classes because it gave her easy access to the door and teachers typically avoided that side of the classroom for some reason. Her shadow, Talon, had similar seating tastes, but he sat in the back row. She gave him a tired glare when he walked by. He clearly was avoiding eye contact with her. 

Penny smiled, guess my comment about not getting any sleep paid off. I should try that more often. He might bug me less. 

“Alright everyone, since today is Wednesday, it is a silent reading day. You should be reading one of the required texts given at the beginning of the year. Those options are, …” Mr. Quimby droned his typical Wednesday spiel and Penny fell asleep to his calm voice as usual. 

*RING*

“Alright class, that’s it for today, don’t forget that your vocabulary lists are due tomorrow at the beginning of the class and the quiz is on Friday. See you all tomorrow.”

Penny woke up and left the room. This time Talon didn’t follow her. It was break and they hung out on opposite sides of the school with their own friends. She made her way to their friend group’s table and sat down and was about to fall asleep when she felt a tap on her shoulder. 

“Hey Penny, what’s up with you?” said Kayla. Penny lifted her head and attempted a smile, “Nevermind girl, you look awful. How much sleep did you get last night?”

“Thanks Kayla. Talon said the same thing to me this morning,” she rolled her eyes and resisted the urge to bash her head against the table. “I got enough sleep that I’m here and that’s enough for me.”

“Okay girl… Let me know if you need anything. I’m always here for you even if we might not have any classes together.”

“Thanks K,” Penny groaned, remembering her annoyance this morning. 

“What was that for?” Kayla asked. 

“Talon. This morning was so annoying. He of course napped during calc which meant that Mr. Clockmaker had his attention on me for the whole class and the amount of questions I had to answer was awful. And then Talon had to rub salt in the wound by saying I looked awful this morning and I told him it was because of the homework, and then he had to be nasty about the homework too.” Penny ranted. 

“Wow,” Kayla said, “Sounds like you had your work cut out for you this morning. I am so glad that I don’t have Mr. Clockmaker for math. Miss Sue is bad but not as bad as him.”

“So how has your day been so far?”

“Nothing interesting. A spat with Mal, but you don’t want to hear about it.”

“Ugh Mal. Remind me again why you like her again?”

“Penny!” Kayla blushed, “Honestly, I don’t know but her reactions are so fun so I can’t help but keep bugging her. It’s too bad we don’t have any classes together this year, you could watch us go at each other.”

“That does not sound like something I would even want to see. And we do have a class, remember? Next period is creative writing.”

“Oh yeah,” Kayla drawled, “I always forget about that class.”

“Maybe because you’re always daydreaming about what you’re going to say to Mal in your next class,” Penny teased. 

Kayla slapped Penny lightly on the arm, “OMG Penn, don’t say that. It’s not because of her. Creative writing just brings out my inner writer, and I can’t help it if I love a good enemies to lovers arc.”

“You and your enemies to lovers. One day you’ll learn that relationships built on that trope don’t last.” 

*RING*

“Well today is not that day.” Kayla proudly strutted towards Penny, “Alright let’s get to class so I can finish my story and you can edit it for me.”

Penny sighed and followed Kayla to their next class. 

Meanwhile

“Let’s go Mal, time for engineering.” Talon jabbed his protein bar at Mal’s phone. 

“Alright, alright. Calm down, I’m going, I’m going.” Mal put her phone in her pocket and grabbed her backpack. 

“I can’t wait to work in the lab today. The part I requested from Mrs. Chang should have come in today. Which means I can finally get to working on the finishing touches on the engine.” Talon squealed happily. 

“Figures you would get excited about a car part instead of the fact that it’s a period away from your beloved blonde.” Mal said sarcastically. 

“This is my one period away from her, so I get to spend time not worrying about one-upping her. Plus I’ve been waiting for weeks for this part, so my excitement is merited.”

“Uh-huh,” Mal agreed. The two continued to walk to their class together. Mal enjoyed engineering, but it wasn’t her favorite class like it was Talon’s. Talon always lost track of time in the class and she always had to drag him away from the lab. Luckily, Mrs. Chang liked Mal and Talon enough to give them passes everytime Talon went overboard on his work. 

Since Talon would be working on the engine for the class, it meant that Mal would be left alone to design her own project. She had had an idea for a sort of crane apparatus that would let her pick things up. It would fulfill all of the requirements set and even get a few extra points. 

When they got to class, Talon set his backpack down and immediately went to the lab, without even listening to Mrs. Chang’s greeting. Mal sat down and took out her notebook and started to title her sketch page. 

“Hello class. Today you may work on the project that is assigned to you. If anyone has any questions or needs any help, feel free to ask me. I’ll be walking around the room and in the lab if anyone needs me,” Mrs. Chang looked around at the room as she completed the roll on her computer, “Mal, is Talon not here? His part came in today and I know he’s been waiting for it.”

“He’s here. He went straight to the lab to go work. I couldn’t stop him.” Mal said unconvincingly. 

“Oh, okay thanks for letting me know.” Mrs. Chang finished the roll and made her way to the lab so that she could show Talon where the part he had been waiting for was. 

Mal turned back to her notebook and started sketching out the general look of her project. The rest of her group would deal with specifications in weight and height, but she dealt with material and the look of the thing. 

As she drew, she couldn’t stop her mind from wandering to her previous class. Kayla had said something stupid again, and she could not help herself from starting another fight with the girl. Mal grinned a little as she thought of the other girl. It’s too bad she said so many inane things, she was so pretty when she wasn’t spouting about another boy band she had discovered. 

Mal sighed loudly and one of her group members asked if she was alright. She said yes and continued her sketch of the crane. She got through a good portion of the sketch before her mind went back to thinking about Kayla. I need to stop thinking about her. We get it Mal. You are gay for Kayla, but it’s time to sketch this crane out and finish your part of the work. 

The rest of the period went relatively the same. Before the bell had a chance to ring, Mal went to prepare Talon for his next class. She was anticipating the next period and wanted to get there as soon as possible, which meant she had to get Talon up and out of the lab. 

Talon surprisingly came with little fuss; he had found a good stopping point in implementing the new part into the engine and he left the lab willingly. 

Mal’s next class was math with Miss Sue and Kayla which wasn’t too far from Talon’s AP Bio class. Talon walked Mal to her next class and (as usual) ran into Penny walking with Kayla. Penny and Talon just glared at each other, while Kayla started chatting away with Mal rolling her eyes at her antics. 

The two made their way to Bio without a word. Sometimes they had pleasantries to exchange, but Talon had started off their shared day on a sour note and Penny was ignoring him. 

“Hello students, today’s the day!” Dr. Slickstein bumbled around the classroom before stopping at the whiteboard. “Winter break is around the corner and that means winter projects!” 

The class groaned collectively. 

“Oh don’t groan, it’s a fun one. This is a pairs project. And before you get all excited about choosing your partner, you don’t get to. I assigned partners based on grades and where students comprehension lies so that one person doesn’t end up doing most of the work.

“The project itself is pretty fun if I do say so myself, but different from past years so I have tried to make it as clear as possible by writing down the aims of the project and what I expect to see.” Dr. Slickstein waved a stack of green sheets in the air and started to hand them out. 

“Alright. As you all know we have been learning about cellular respiration and photosynthesis and what the outputs and inputs are in both of those long cycles. Most of what students miss on the AP exam is concerning these topics because they are hard to memorize and all around boring if you hate biology.

“The goal of this project is to get you to understand cell respiration and photosynthesis on a deeper level by researching and putting together a visual that shows your knowledge. The visual could be a model, it could be a drawing, or even a Powerpoint presentation. Regardless of what option your group chooses, you must have a presentation ready to give in front of the class.

“Both partners must be involved in the presentation aspect. If I see that it is clear that one person did all of the work on the visuals and did not do work on the presentation aspect or vice versa, points will be taken off,” Dr. Slickstein warned. “Now, this project is given instead of a final for this class, since your final would have been an exam on this material. This means it is due 5 Wednesdays from today, because our exam block falls on a Wednesday.”

“The paper I handed out contains all of the information needed for the logistics of the project and you can use your notes and your textbook for the information on the topics themselves.”

“That should be all of the house-keeping in terms of what the project is, so I suppose I’ll let you know your partners. By the way, you’ll have the rest of the class period to brainstorm with your partner and maybe get some information down to prepare for the project. Every Wednesday you’ll have 20 minutes at the end of class to discuss and work with your partner. If that is not enough time, then you may work at home or after school. I would be happy to keep my room open for groups that want to work together.” 

Dr. Slickstein lowered his voice as if he was a TV show host and said, “And now the moment you’ve all been waiting for. Your assigned partners.

“First off, we have Maddie Joy and Lacey Christianson, Brett Weaver and Yura Broderick, Emily Patterson and James Dasheil, Ashley Gomez and Jayden Tring, Caden Kim and Jack Gutierrez, Camille Casper and Luke Zamora, Frank O’Connor and Gigi Johnson, and finally Talon Claw and Penny Brown. Now go and discuss!” Dr. Slickstein waved his students off and returned to his desk so he could watch the chaos. 

Chapter Text

“Dr. Slickstein, can we switch partners?” Penny asked urgently. 

Talon just muttered and then vocalized his agreement, “Yeah, I don’t think the project will be any good if we work together.” 

Penny just glared at Talon in response. 

“You cannot switch partners. I know you guys are always on opposite sides, but I think that you can work well together, especially with both of your hard-working personalities.” 

“Dr. Slickstein, are you sure you haven’t made a mistake this time? We do both work hard but I think that we work in different ways that aren’t compatible and therefore would doom our project,” said Penny. She would try her hardest to not work with Talon, she didn’t think she could last working with him for the next 5 weeks. 

“Penny, I didn’t make a mistake. I chose this project to be a pairs project for a reason. I look forward to seeing your project.” Dr. Slickstein said a matter-of-a-factly. He knew that Penny and Talon would argue about their partnering together, but he was convinced that they would be a fantastic couple. Couple in terms of the project of course. 

Penny didn’t dignify a response to Dr. Slickstein’s words and turned back to her partner. Talon already had his laptop out and was writing down information on both of the cycles. So Penny sat down and pulled her own laptop out and found that Talon had already shared the document. Wordlessly, they had split up the work by having Talon researching cell respiration and Penny copying down her notes into the photosynthesis question. 

The silence between them was their own version of a competition. Whoever broke the silence first would lose. The two worked throughout the period without a word. When the bell rang they went their separate ways (even though their next class was together). 

In their French class, Penny and Talon could get by without talking to each other because Wednesday was always vocabulary lecture day. 

Penny’s brain was full of new vocabulary as she collected her bag and left the school. She would go home and take a long nap. She was trying not to think about the absolute hell that Dr. Slickstein had inflicted on her. 

Talon had already forgotten the vocabulary as he left the class; he had written it all down, so he could study later on. The rest of today would be dedicated to getting his mind off the dreaded project. His favorite method of doing so was to play video games until his uncle came home from work and would expect Talon to do his homework. 

The next day: 

AP U.S. History was an easy class for Talon so he knew that he could zone out and play minesweeper on his laptop instead of taking notes. He would get the notes from James after class. 

Talon half-listened to the lecture and then gave up when Penny asked a question. Penny had this odd effect on him where if she asked a question, his mind would immediately become jumbled and only think about her for some reason. It wasn’t because he liked her or anything, but he couldn’t help but remember their first actual battle. 

It was fall of freshman year in Miss Colfer’s English class. Miss Colfer liked to have class debates and would separate the class in two sections that would nominate students to be the spokesperson. Talon ended up being nominated from his section. 

It was weird, but Talon couldn’t even remember what the debate topic was. Just the competitive atmosphere of the classroom. 

Penny was nominated from her side and they both went to the podium, confident that they would win the debate. Penny elaborated on what her group thought about the question and quickly won the favor of the teacher with her high vocabulary and varied sentence structure. 

Talon went up next and delivered his point in a concise way that left listeners wanting to hear more about his points. The two asked each other questions after their initial talk and would follow up the questions with reasoning why their given side was better. 

The argument was never rude or disrespectful, although the section of the class that was not at the front was a little more vocal about their belief on the other side. 

When the time came for Miss Colfer to pick a winner, she stalled until the bell rang and told the class that she would let the class know the results the following week. Talon remembered feeling disappointed at the lack of winner, he thought he had had his victory in the bag. 

The following Monday was insanity. The class demanded for a result from the debate and when Miss Colfer finally let the results slip, the class rioted. Penny and Talon sat there, stunned while their classmates yelled about the unfairness of the results. When Miss Colfer finally managed to quiet down the class by showing them the paper she had used to grade the two groups, some vocal members of the class started slandering the other side and it became chaos again. 

At some point during the explanation, Penny and Talon faced each other with blank stares. 

“So Miss Colfer, if you had to personally pick a winner, who would win? You have the results from an unbiased point of view, but you have to have a personal preference,” one of the students said. 

“I really didn’t have a favorite debater. Both Ms. Brown and Mr. Claw did an excellent job proving their point.” 

The students continued to hassle Miss Colfer until she finally relented and said, “I enjoyed both debaters for different reasons. Talon was very clear and concise in his reasoning while Penny used a lot of vocabulary and ethos to appeal to the listener. My favorite between the two is Penny because of my inner linguist, but Talon did wonderful work in presenting his evidence in an unbiased way.” 

The class was silent and looked at the two in mention. Talon and Penny were still staring at each other but Penny’s blank stare slowly shifted into a smirk. The students closest to Penny and on her team started screaming in victory and once again the class fell into chaos. 

So whenever Penny asked a question, Talon would be reminded of that sassy smirk she gave him that day. It suited her so well that when she went back to being the self-confident girl she was, Talon was lost in confusion. 

“Hey Penny.” Talon said after class. 

“What’s up Talon?” Penny responded kindly. 

“You did really well in that debate last week.” 

“Thanks”

“Don’t get used to the feeling though. Next time we come to intellectual blows, I’m winning.” Talon said proudly. 

Penny looked at him in shock as he walked away and then found her bearings, “Hey Talon!” 

“What?” he tossed his head over his shoulder. 

“This isn’t over.” Penny simply smiled and turned away to her own class, leaving Talon to gape at her back. 

And thus, the rivalry between the two students was born. In their shared science class that year, they also had an intellectual “discussion”. Debates in English class continued and the class would always pick the two to be spokespersons and the debate always ended in a tie much to the student’s chagrin. The next year, they had more classes together and Talon showed off his history and math knowledge while Penny kept up her high English and French grades. It seemed that their science classes always ended up being their point of mutual truce-age because their knowledge was relatively balanced. 

These academic quarrels became more and more frequent and the two’s relationship spiraled into what it is now: two students struggling for superiority in every class. 

The incident became known as “The First Debate” and students who were in the class would recount the tale of the debate and the conception of the academic rivalry. Over the years, the rivalry kept on, but the excitement towards them died down and it became more of a natural occurrence to see the two trading insults. 

It’s impressive that we’ve managed to keep our relationship for this long without one of us getting tired of it. But at the same time we’re both too stubborn to let the other win. 

Talon zoned back into the lesson when he heard something about Andrew Jackson and a cheese party and stayed zoned in for the rest of the class period. 

*RING* 

Talon walked out of class feeling well-rested and hopeful for AP Calc. The video-game brain-rot yesterday was treating him well and he felt refreshed. 

Penny, on the other hand, did not feel refreshed. Her afternoon nap had screwed her sleep schedule and she ended up falling asleep at 3am again. Collectively, she had gotten the required amount of sleep for teens, but consecutively was a different story. 

She trudged to math, afraid that Talon would take another nap and she would have to bear the brunt of Mr. Clockmaker’s questions. 

Calculus went by with no disagreements between the two rivals and English went much the same. The two kept their cold silence towards each other and Kayla was worried about Penny’s silence. 

“So math yesterday was so funny. You saw how I started the period off with that comment about the new boy band I’m listening to. And of course, Mal commented on it when we got into the class and started slandering my favorite member of the group, saying that he wasn’t hot. Which is insane because he looks like a straight up Greek god and she is totally wrong about that,” Kayla rambled on and noticed Penny’s lack of attention, “So then we started talking about who she thinks is attractive, and she picked the drummer girl, which so valid, but I think that might confirm the fact that Mal might be gay, which would be awesome for me because then I might actually have a chance. Anyway we kept talking and she admitted her feelings for me and I admitted mine and right in the middle of class we started making out and she picked me up and put me on the desk and madly made out with me and Miss Sue had nothing to say about it but the rest of the class was cheering for me and it was hilarious.” Kayla finally stopped and looked at Penny. 

“Oh, that’s great Kayla,” she replied with no emotion. 

“Girl. You are not listening to me. You are not okay.” 

Penny turned at Kayla’s serious tone. “K, I’m fine, just have a lot on my mind” 

“Penn, I’ve known you since first grade, you can’t hide anything from me. Tell me what’s wrong so I can help you.”

“Nothing specifically is wrong Kayla,” Penny sighed, “just a lot going on. Math is always crazy, I hate history with a passion, and science is a complete mess.” 

Kayla looked at Penny and urged her to go on. “I got paired with Talon for our winter project.” Kayla gasped and Penny kept going, “and now we have a mutual silent treatment, which is nice but also really weird. And it’s only been one day of this. What am I going to do for the rest of the semester?” 

“Just talk to him?” said Kayla. 

“K, you don’t understand, I can’t just do that. That would mean giving in and losing.”

“Girl, are you hearing yourself? You don’t want to lose a contest that you haven’t even stated, which means it probably doesn’t even exist.” 

“It’s definitely a contest. I know Talon.” 

*RING* 

“Sure, Penny. Well, hopefully creative writing will make you feel better.” 

The rest of both of their classes went fine. Penny worked on editing her story because she couldn’t muster enough creativity to continue the plot. Kayla helped her out and worked on her newest enemies to lovers story (at this point the teacher was tired of her repetitive themes). Mal worked on finishing the crane sketch and advised her group as they started to list material for their project. Talon worked on his engine more and was close to getting it done when the bell rang. 

The next class was filled with much less energy than the previous. Talon and Penny worked in silence once again. Dr. Slickstein wanted to get them to talk to each other and actually collaborate, but he knew that any of his interference might break the fragile truce between the two. 

French went by as well, with Talon struggling and Penny continuing her creative writing editing; she was basically fluent for all intents and purposes. The editing went by slowly as Penny recalled her and Talon’s past “battles”. Most of them were typically getting higher grades on tests than the other and rarely involved actual confrontation. It was almost like a Cold War for them. Sophomore year was the year that the two of them started exchanging words more often. Trash talking each other was not unusual and teachers had to remind them that they were in school to learn not to fight. 

Penny sighed aloud, it feels so wrong to not talk to each other. I haven’t had this much tense silence with him since… well ever. I want to break the silence but I can suffer with it a little bit more. I will not be the one to give in. 

The bell shook Penny out of her thoughts and she gathered her things and went home. She had a mountain of homework waiting for her for some reason. Thursdays were normally her chill day, but Wednesday she did not work much, so today would be her catch up day. Maybe she would try to get her homework done so she could have a peaceful weekend. 

Talon had the same problem and also planned to finish his homework after he made himself a snack. Talon was a pretty good cook and liked to have a snack to power himself through his homework. Today’s plan was apples and peanut butter. 

Both of their days ended with homework and crashing from doing all of their homework. Not one thought was spent thinking about the other. 

Friday went by quickly. No words were exchanged between the two even though there were plenty of opportunities to start an argument. Their test from AP Bio came back and the rest of the class was comparing scores. Penny and Talon remained silent and kept working on their project. 

It was finally Saturday and Penny could finally relax. She had basically finished up all of her homework for the next week, barring assignments teachers hadn’t given her yet. She decided that the day would be spent hanging out with her family. Uncle Gadget wanted to take Brain for a walk and she joined them. 

Gadget had a favorite park and they headed there and had lunch on a park bench. Penny enjoyed the warm sun and the ever-chilling wind. Brain and Gadget were playing fetch and everything felt right with the world. 

Talon had a very similar plan for his weekend: sleeping in and relaxing. When he finally woke up around 1pm, his uncle forced him to get dressed for an event at his workplace. It was some sort of party celebrating the best worker in that year and his uncle was convinced that he had won. 

He put on his purple suit that would make it clear he was Uncle Claw’s nephew. Dr. Claw liked his purple color scheme and forced anything related to him to have purple. Talon was okay with that, purple went well with his skin tone and he liked the color. 

Penny got back home when Gadget’s phone rang annoyingly. Her uncle answered it and his face paled as the conversation went on. 

“What’s wrong, Uncle Gadget?” 

“I completely forgot about a work party that starts at 5pm. It’s for the best worker and my boss just called to remind me that I have to attend.” 

Penny checked the clock. 4pm. 

“Then let’s get ready! What time do we have to leave?” said Penny in a rush. 

“4:45, and the dresscode is nice, try to wear something nice. Oh that red dress you got for your dance last year that you never got to wear would be perfect!” 

“Thanks Uncle Gadget!”

She quickly took a shower and blew her hair dry so it would fall straight. She put on her dress and grabbed a gray jacket that would match her uncle’s gray suit. 

“Ready to go?” Uncle Gadget asked. 

“Yep!” Penny said. 

When Penny and Gadget got there, they went their separate ways. Gadget found people to schmooze with and Penny wandered around. She had stayed with Gadget before and the conversations bored her. She would take her chances by walking around by herself. Of course, her chance was probably not the best option this time. 

She walked towards the refreshment bin, intent on finding some ginger ale to sip on. Her intent was stopped by someone who bumped into her. She turned to say sorry, but when she made eye contact with the person in question, she stayed silent and turned back around to get her drink. 

Talon wanted to gape as she walked away. She turned without a word, and he was too stunned to see her at that party that he had no words to say. 

Chapter Text

Why would he be here? Penny thought madly. This was supposed to be a relaxing weekend. Not another day having to deal with Talon’s presence. She breathed in through her nose and exhaled through her mouth as her mind swirled with complex plans to avoid him. 

No. 

She would not consciously avoid him. That would basically be admitting defeat. And she was not that kind of girl. She would not go out of her way to talk to him or interact with him either. She set her shoulders and walked around hoping to find someone to talk to that was not Talon. 

Why is she here? Talon thought confusedly. He had never seen Penny at any of his uncle’s work functions but someone in her family must work here otherwise she wouldn’t be here. I was supposed to go around and be Uncle Claw’s perfect nephew. But I suppose having Penny here is another way to prove I’m better than her. Uncle Claw was confident in his nomination and Talon couldn’t see how anyone could beat his hard-working uncle. 

Talon looked for Penny in the crowd before he realized that they weren’t exactly on speaking terms right now. He so wanted to break the silence to rub his superiority in Penny’s face. I won’t talk to Penny. I’ve worked too hard the past few days to break the silence now. 

He sauntered around the room, making conversation with a few of his uncle’s associates that remembered him from the last event. At some point a man went up to the podium and tapped the microphone. 

“Thank you all for being here today. This day is a significant day for this company. As you all know, the merger between MAD and HQ happened a year ago. And at some points we thought we wouldn’t be able to make it through it, but you, our employees, persisted throughout the struggle. Some of them more than others.” He paused, “That is what we are here for today; to congratulate the best employee from each side of the merger. We here at MAHQ could not have accomplished all of these goals without the hard work from everyone here. Please give yourselves a hand.”

The room filled with polite applause and Talon went to go stand next to his uncle and he could see movement across the room of Penny doing the same with her family member. It looked like it might be her uncle, they didn’t look like immediate family to him. 

“Now, two of our employees did amazing jobs,” as the man droned on and listed the work that the winning employees had done, Talon zoned out. These events always lasted a long time but could be solved by a quick 5 minute awards ceremony. He let his eyes wander around the room, keeping an aloof expression so that his uncle wouldn’t notice his wavering attention. 

Penny had the same problem as Talon. Listening to the man jabber about the company and how everyone had persisted through the merger made her bored. She hadn’t known about the merger between the two companies but it explained why she had seen Talon at this event. When she had accompanied her uncle to previous work parties, she had never seen a hint of the dark-haired boy. 

Her eyes peered at the crowd, determining who must have come from the MAD part of the merger. She made eye contact with Talon at the same time his eyes landed on her and she wanted to turn away quickly. Talon did not turn away though, which meant that it would be another staring contest between the two. 

Talon couldn’t help but notice how pretty Penny’s eyes looked in contrast to her red dress. He wanted to let his eyes continue their movement, but he held Penny’s gaze. 

“Our most hardworking employee from the HQ side of the merger this past year was John Gadget!” 

When Penny heard her uncle’s name, she broke eye contact and cheered for her uncle. Talon clapped politely and concluded that the man was her uncle. They didn’t have the same last name, but seemed familiar enough to where they were related. 

Gadget made his way to the podium and accepted his fancy paper. “Thank you!” he said gleefully, he moved to the right end of the stage and waited for the announcer to call out the winner from MAD. 

“Our most hardworking employee from the MAD side of the merger this past year was Dr. George Claw!” 

Applause rang out through the room. The employees from MAD cheered for their fellow worker. It seemed like the merger was not completely merged between the two companies. Talon clapped for his uncle and chanced a glance towards where Penny was standing. She was looking over at him already and shifted her applauding hands towards where Talon was standing. The boy in question smirked and bowed his head and turned back to the stage. 

The two winners were then forced to do a quick photo-op with the CEO of the company who had been the announcer of the event. 

“Let’s bring your families up for a nice photo!” said the CEO. 

Penny and Talon made their way from opposite ends of the stage and joined in on the side of their uncles. Their uncles introduced them to their boss and when Talon and Penny were made to shake hands Penny said, “I know Talon from school.”

“Really! Oh, that’s so cool, Penny!” said Gadget. 

“Penny, why don’t you stand next to Talon? I think it’ll make a nice picture showing off the results of the merger!” said the upbeat CEO. He clearly was pushing for the merger to be a good thing even though a lot of the employees were still not working in complete tandem. 

Penny wanted to make a face at the prospect of standing next to Talon, but she schooled her features. She moved in between the uncles and Talon did the same. They stood there awkwardly until the CEO opened his mouth again. 

“Talon, why don’t you put your arm around Penny? It’ll make for a more unified photo.”

Talon grimaced and did as he was asked without complaint. His hand rested on Penny’s hip and he felt the smooth fabric of her dress. He resisted the urge to poke her in the side and smiled widely for the photographer. 

After a couple seconds of holding the pose, the uncles stepped back and turned to each other to congratulate each other and probably talk about work. Talon and Penny stepped away from each other and hung by their respective uncle’s side. 

“Penny, why don’t you go have a chat with your friend Talon? Claw and I are discussing a new project that the company has us working on,” Gadget said kindly. He always made sure to make Penny comfortable in situations like these and knew that she would not enjoy the boring conversation the two men were about to have. 

“Alright, Uncle Gadget.” Penny wanted to say more but she couldn’t think of anything to say concerning the situation. 

The two teens walked away from their uncles and walked in silence to what seemed to be the dance floor. The music was pretty quiet, but had a steady beat to sway to. Penny’s brain almost shot-circuited when she saw Talon’s harsh gaze at her and she responded by finding the refreshment table once again. 

The rest of the evening was Penny avoiding Talon and Talon gazing longingly at Penny. It wasn’t that it made Penny uncomfortable in a “ew why is a male looking at me like that” but more in a “why is he looking at me like that we hate each other”. Talon’s brain was basically mush and he wanted to chat with Penny and make her notice him. 

Dr. Claw approached his nephew and gruffly said, “Talon, are you ready to go?”

“Yes, Uncle Claw,” he replied. 

Penny was near enough to hear the stoic conversation and couldn’t help but feel a little bit of pity for her classmate. Her own uncle put his hand on her shoulder and gave her the “we’re leaving” look. The look usually happened when Gadget had received bad news or a conversation had gone astray, so she figured that the conversation did not have a happy ending. 

When the two got in the car that Gadget lovingly called the Gadget-Mobile, she expected Gadget to start going off about the conversation he had had. That was usually what happened when they were in the privacy of their own company after work parties like this. 

Instead, Gadget asked, “How was your conversation with your friend? Talon, was it?” 

Penny was shocked so she didn’t respond for a few beats, “Oh, uhh, yeah. It was great!”

“That’s nice, Penny. I’m glad you had someone your age at that event.” He sighed, “That was a pretty pointless party.”

“Yeah.”

The rest of the car ride was ridden in silence. It seemed like Gadget was too tired to blow up about the conversation and Penny didn’t feel like explaining her highschool problems to her uncle who already had too much on his plate. 

The Claw car ride was much the opposite. 

“I totally caught Gadget off-guard when I won that award. Take that inspector .” Claw said proudly. 

“Inspector?”

“Yes, Gadget’s job is to make sure that everyone is doing their work correctly and people from MAD call him inspector.” Talon nodded his head and Claw continued, “So how was your conversation with niece Gadget?” 

“We didn’t really talk. We don’t have much in common.”

“Ah. Well, I trust that you talked well with my associates?”

“Yes, Uncle Claw.”

The conversation ended there. Claw was not the type of guardian to pry into his ward’s life and if he didn’t want to explain what his deal with the Gadget progeny was then he wasn’t going to ask. 

Chapter Text

Monday, was to say the least chaotic. But the day didn’t start out so bad. APUSH was one of Talon’s easier APs to deal with and he knew he would spend the class doing so he got an early head start by asking James to send him the notes after class. 

Penny, on the other hand, studiously took notes and asked questions about the new content the professor seemed to be shoving down their throats. She knew it was an AP class but this class felt like Super Advanced Placement instead of Normal Advanced Placement. Clearly Talon felt it was the latter as he was already taking his NAP. 

Penny could hear some semblance of hushed conversation in the back corner of the class. That was where some of the ‘popular’ people sat. They weren’t really popular, but the fact that everyone knew them for some reason made them seem larger than life. Lou Birch was chattering away and showing off her phone to her best friend Yura Broderick. 

Penny liked Yura for the most part. She was friendly and possessed this quality that made her seem like she was smarter than the rest of the class. She wouldn’t lie, she always felt a little threatened by Yura but she managed to have an easy academic friendship with the girl. That’s why when class ended and Yura and Lou approached her she wasn’t too surprised. 

“Hey, Penny! Can I ask you a question?” asked Yura. Lou was at her side, her phone ready to flip and show. 

“Sure, Yura, what’s up?”

“Lou showed me this picture of you and Talon looking all cozy…” Lou flipped her phone and showed Penny the picture. It was indeed of her and Talon. Talon had his arm around Penny’s waist and they both wore brilliant, happy smiles. 

Penny said nothing. 

“I was hoping you’d be able to explain,” said Lou with a smirk, “my mom was at a party for her company and imagine my surprise when I found you and Talon in her camera roll.”

Penny ran through her options quickly and decided that defending herself would lead to this sure-to-be rumor to be put to rest. (This would not be the case). 

“Yeah. Actually, both of our Uncle’s won the same award and the CEO wanted a picture of us looking chummy with each other, hence Talon’s arm around me.” Penny explained clearly. 

Of course, in the same moment, Talon was leaving the classroom and had to go by the three girls’ conversation. 

“What about my arm around Penny?” he asked while snaking his arm around Penny’s shoulder and leaning into her.

Both Lou and Yura went wide-eyed at the contact between the two rivals. Lou, who still had her phone out, took a quick picture of the two and quickly absconded with Yura to their next class. 

“Wait, guys! It’s not what it looks like,” Penny called out and then sighed when she realized they were too far away to hear her. “Seriously? What is with you? Putting your arm around me like that? Who do you think you are?” 

Penny knew her face was probably flaming, not just from her anger but also from Talon’s arm around her. She had definitely stopped functioning when she felt his arm around her shoulder but she had rebooted and now was taking out her frustration at Talon. 

“Woah, Penn, chill out. I thought it’d be funny,” Talon said with a lazy grin. It was clear that he was still not completely awake and probably thought this was a dream. 

“Well, it wasn’t funny. And now, thanks to your moronic move, those two are going to spread that picture around.”

“And what’s so bad about that Penn?” Talon drawled. He clearly was not in his right-mind. 

“Stop calling me ‘Penn’. And it’s bad because people are going to start spreading rumors about us. And I really don’t want to deal with rumors today. This month is already hellish what with that project, I don’t need another unwanted layer.” 

Talon did not respond to Penny’s complaint as the bell rang.

“Let’s get to math.” Penny then dragged Talon along by his hoodie. She knew he could walk by himself but she figured it might help rumors slow down if she was seen treating him as usual. 

(Penny is not too bright in terms of social situations and little did she know she aggravated the problem even more. People kept eyeing her and Talon in the hallway, and since Talon was for all intents and purposes still asleep and he definitely noticed the staring in the hallway. Talon was socially adept and knew that this would add more coal to the rumor train, but he couldn’t care less. After all, it wasn’t such a bad thing that people thought he was with Penny.)

Calc passed by uneventfully in terms of rumors. Lou and Yura weren’t in this class. Yura was smart and had opted to not overload herself with APs and didn’t take Calc. It was a pretty small class with a couple seniors and a few juniors that Penny and Talon basically spent the whole day with: James, Lacey, Camille, Frank, and Ashley. 

The seven of them had a special group chat for assignments and such and Penny knew that they would not fall prey to the gossip that was sure to be spreading around the school. Camille and Lacey were quiet and came in a package deal and definitely would not say anything to them. James and Frank were Talon’s friends so they would bother Talon before bothering Penny. Ashley would be the problem person. She was in Lou and Yura’s friend group, but Penny had faith in her. 

(Penny should have no faith in people who enjoy highschool gossip.)

Penny was packing up her bag when she felt a tap on her shoulder. She braced herself and turned to meet the offender. 

“Hey, Penny! Have you done the homework for tomorrow yet? I’m having trouble with the last problem. Could you show me your work on the way to English?” said Ashley. 

Penny wanted to sigh in relief that she didn’t get asked the question she had been dreading, “Yeah, of course! It was tough but I watched some Youtube videos to help me figure it out!”

“Awesome,” said Ashley. She looked at the problem as they walked to class and once they were halfway there she thanked her and said, “thanks so much, Penny. You’re a lifesaver!”

“No problem!” smiled Penny. 

“So, you and Talon?” said Ashley with no warning. 

“Sorry what?” asked Penny. She heard Ashley’s words but did not fully process them, and she could not deal. 

“Y’know, you and Talon? Lou sent me a picture, so spill!” Ashley chittered excitedly. 

Penny rolled her eyes, “Sorry, Ashley. There is nothing to ‘spill’. Nothing is going on between Talon and I.” Ashley had the audacity to look confused so Penny explained further, “Our uncles both got an award and we had to take a picture together that’s it.”

“But the picture was at school?” Ashley pulled out her phone and showed Penny the picture. It was of Penny with a mad blush on her face and Talon looking quite comfortable with his arm around her. 

“UGH!” exclaimed Penny. “I’m not even going to try to explain that one away.” She stomped off towards her seat and sat down with a huff. 

“Good morning class! Today we will introduce new vocab words and then write a short analysis on an article I linked online.”

Penny sighed in relief, her vocabulary could always use some spicing up and she liked adding the words to her favorite words list. 

English passed by quickly for Penny. Talon felt like the class period would never end. James and Frank were frantically whispering to each other to his right and he wanted to join in the conversation, but he knew he would fall behind if he didn’t write down these vocab words. 

Talon’s analysis was probably bad; it was not his best work by a long shot and he dreaded the grade he would receive on this. He shook it off though when Frank approached him. 

“Hey Tal. What’s up with you and Penny?” Frank asked. 

“What do you mean, Frankie? Nothing’s going on other than our usual bickering.”

“I’ve been hearing rumors about the two of you.”

“Aren’t there always rumors? Someone always thinks that we are secretly dating or something. Which is totally stupid, we interact on a daily basis and none of it is ever nice.” Talon pushed his hair out of his face as he said this. 

“Yeah, I guess. Well, see you at Bio,” Frank waved and walked off to join his friends. 

Talon made his way to the lunch table and was not expecting to be fully attacked by Mal. He almost lost his footing when she barreled into him. 

“Dude, Mal, watch where you’re going. You’re going to kill someone if you keep doing that,” Talon reprimanded her. 

“Oh my gosh!!!!” she squealed, “I heard about you and Penny. That picture was so cute!!! I can’t believe you didn’t tell me about the company party. That is valuable best friends information that I should have known before I had to hear it from Kayla in Physics.”

“Mal, lower your voice. There’s nothing to report on. I don’t want everyone to know about this.” He dragged Mal over to their table and silenced her, “Mal, I don’t know what you heard from Kayla. But trust me, whatever you heard is not true.” 

“Yeah? So these pictures of you looking rather comfortable and close with Penny are ‘not true’?” She used air quotes and raised her eyebrow at Talon. 

“Mal,” he sighed resignedly, “the first picture at the party is because the CEO wanted a picture of our uncle’s with their family. He is a little bit crazy about company unity and wanted a good faith picture to show that everyone got along. I had to do it to appease my uncle.” 

“And the second one? This was taken today by the looks of it.” 

“That one I don’t have much to provide for context other than I heard Lou and Yura talking to Penny about me and I interfered.”

“And you interfered by putting your arm around Penny?” Mal shook her head in disbelief, “Talon, you have got to be kidding me.” 

“I was half asleep okay?” he defended himself, “I wasn’t totally in my right mind and thought that was the best course of option. Clearly it was not.”

“Well, that explains the next picture.” It was a picture of Talon getting dragged by Penny in the direction of their Calc class. 

“Wait, what?” Talon peered at the picture, “I don’t even remember that happening,” he admitted. 

Mal just shook her head in resignation, “You’re a moron.”

“That’s not the first time I’ve heard that today,” he laughed grimly. 

“I’m not surprised, you’re acting like an idiot today, Tal.”

Talon didn’t deign to respond to her apparent jab at his intelligence. He just set his head on the lunch table and munched on some string cheese. 

Meanwhile: 

Penny walked to meet up with Kayla for their quick break and was met with an uncharacteristically silent Kayla. 

“Kayla? Are you alright? You seem kind of quiet today?”

“Yeah, I’m good, Penny,” Kayla responded curtly. 

“Woah, did I do something? You only call me Penny when I do something wrong. What can I do to fix it?” Penny said in a rush. 

Kayla just looked up at Penny and noticed that she clearly had no idea of why she was mad at her. “You had to have heard the rumors by now,” Kayla said simply. 

“Don’t even get me started,” Penny groaned in annoyance. “Today has been awful. People think we’re together now because of that stupid picture.”

“Not just the one picture Penn, there’s a couple of them actually,” Kayla pulled out her phone and scrolled through the pictures that she had gotten straight from Lou. Lou was in a lot of Kayla’s classes and when they got along they were a pair to be trifled with. 

Penny just scrolled through the pictures and sighed in defeat. “Our uncle’s both won awards at their company party and we had to take a picture together and the CEO is gunning for togetherness so he made us pose together. The second picture is from class this morning. I have no idea what demon possessed Talon to make him put his arm around my shoulder like that but it happened, and it seems like Lou is always ready to take a picture.”

Kayla snickered, “the blush is really what sells it, Miss Tomato.

Penny just rolled her eyes and continued, “The third picture is because Talon wasn’t awake enough to realize what was happening and I had to drag him to class. The fourth and fifth pictures, I have no clue. And they don’t look that incriminating to me. It’s just Talon and I glaring at each other as usual. Nothing new about that.”

“Girl. You call that glaring at each other? You can practically see the hearts in his eyes. You on the other hand seem to be sporting a cute shade of pink,” Kayla remarked, “Penny. You can’t fool me.”

“Kayla. Can we talk about this later? You can come over after school and we can have a full chat since this is not the place to have such a sensitive conversation.”

“Of course, Penn,” Kayla smiled and winked, “your secret is safe with me.” 

“Hey Penny! I overheard you talking about Talon? So like, you guys are dating now right?” said Sarah Forman. Penny knew her face from around school, but she knew Kayla much more since they shared a couple classes. “I heard about that project you guys are working on together in Bio, I think that’s so cute. And so couple goals.”

“Sarah, I don’t think Penny wants to talk about it. They aren’t dating.” Kayla shut down the curious girl quickly. 

“Oh, sorry. I just wanted to let you know I was happy for you. It’s been about time you two got together. That ‘rivalry’ was getting kind of old.”

“Goodbye, Sarah.” Penny glared. 

The girl left quickly and Penny let out another sigh. She was sighing a lot today. 

Break ended and the two girls went to their next period, which definitely consisted of Kayla reinvigorating her enemies to lovers arc. Normally, she would bother Penny with the details, but other people were bothering Penny about details on her and Talon. Gossip spread fast at Metro City High. Kayla wrote down new ideas that Penny and Talon’s complicated relationship had given her. She was not against using her friends as inspiration for her writing. 

Engineering for Mal and Talon went much the same, except that people just seemed to congratulate Talon more than anything. He got a couple questions about their relationship that he just shrugged off. He could not be bothered to answer questions about Penny when he was in his one class without her. 

Both students had to deal with fighting the rumors, which for some reason only added to the fire that the rumor now was. 

AP Bio was a whole different story. The beginning of class was dedicated to note taking but everyone was passing along notes. It was a small class of only juniors and all of the juniors were hell-bent on knowing the drama between the two supposed lovers. 

It seemed like the chatter in the back of the classroom got louder every slide that passed. Dr. Slickstein knew that there was nothing he could do to stop the students from their very important gossip so at the halfway mark he gave up and decided to let the students have time to work on their projects now instead of Wednesday. 

Penny and Talon wanted to scream at the unfairness that was life as Dr. Slickstein was clearly doing this because of the new gossip around school. Penny knew from experience that the teachers liked to gossip just as much as the students and Slick was not immune to those charms. 

Anticipating people’s odd desire to ask Penny and Talon questions she created a united front by sitting next to Talon and ‘working’ on the project. She didn’t want to do this, but she figured it would be better than sitting alone and letting the rumors fly on their own. 

Talon glanced up when he saw Penny moving next to him and he wanted to face palm. Penny moving next to him would only result in more pictures of them being a supposed couple.

“Penny, have you finished copying down your notes on photosynthesis? I finished cell respo this weekend.” Talon hoped that Penny would reply kindly and they could at least try to work on the project since it seemed that their silent treatment was over. 

“Yeah,” she replied, “I also started researching adding more information to cell respiration. We got a lot in the notes but I wanted to make sure we had enough detailed information.”

“Great idea. I’ll do the same for photosynthesis then.” Talon turned back to his computer to start typing and could see his classmates watching that interaction from the corner of his eye. There’s no way we’re going to be able to get work done with everyone watching our every move. Penny is shy enough already. We need an environment without people. OH!

Talon furiously typed onto the document that he was working on with Penny. He found where she was typing and right below it typed, “I didn’t want to ask this out loud because of prying ears, but since we do eventually have to work on the physical aspect of the project, did you want to come over to my house to work on the project? My uncle is pretty chill and won’t bother us while we work.”

Penny looked up from what she was typing as she saw the words show up on her screen. She glanced at Talon and nodded, typing, “Okay. Does tomorrow or Wednesday work? I am meeting up with Kayla after school today.”

“Wednesday works.”

After that exchange the two continued on their research with the class none the wiser about what had occurred just then. Penny was having trouble focusing on her research. Kayla is going to lose her mind when I tell her that I’m going over to his house.  

Talon faced a similar predicament, Mal is going to freak when I tell her about this.

RING

The students packed up their bags and walked to their next class. French went similarly to their elective classes. People kept asking Penny and Talon questions and expected to be let in on all of the details. It wasn’t like it was anyone’s business but theirs what was happening, but as one student explained, the school has been invested in their relationship since the First Debate freshman year. 

School finally let out, and to say that Penny was relieved is a statement. She was so tired she almost forgot about her arrangement with Kayla until the other girl came bounding up at her to drag her home. Once at the Gadget household, Penny was forced to give Kayla all of the ‘deets’ and she and Kayla had a very long discussion about what might happen on Wednesday. 

(Kayla was not-so-secretly overjoyed at this fact and would definitely be adding ‘going to each other’s houses’ into her ideas document. She had a whole list of tropes she loved.) 

Chapter Text

Tuesday went by similarly to Monday. The school seemed to make it their responsibility to involve themselves in Talon and Penny’s relationship. When it got out that they were working on their winter project together, the school would not let up on suggestive comments that had Penny rolling her eyes at the stupidity of highschoolers. Talon would just laugh and try to discount the stories to no avail. 

When Wednesday came around, Penny was nervous to say the least. She was going to go to Talon’s house this afternoon to work on the project. Getting ready was a whole event; Penny had called Kayla for outfit advice and just to have someone to rant to. 

(Kayla took careful notes on what Penny was complaining about for future reference.)

Penny settled on her typical red sweatshirt and blue jeans; it was her favorite outfit and one that she considered lucky. She had worn the sweatshirt freshman year during the First Debate, and she had a lot of positive memories associated with it. Penny wanted as much positive energy for this monumental event. (That was how she justified the fact that she wanted to wear her jacket, instead of the fact that red made her feel more confident because of that party.)

Talon was in a similar boat in being nervous for what the day would bring. He cleaned his room to the best of his abilities and made sure that nothing embarrassing was hanging out of any drawers or closets. 

Mal had called him earlier this morning to wake him up and remind him about what was to come. He thanked her profusely while hurriedly cleaning his room. Mal stayed on the phone and ranted about her own hatred (love) of Kayla. Mal was an unlikely morning person and had the most energy right after waking up. 

“Pick the purple shirt. It’s cuter and makes your hair look good,” Mal called from her place on the nightstand.

“Does it? I always thought I looked better in the dark blue.” Talon was surprised at the fact that Mal knew he was debating between the purple and the blue shirt. 

“No. Purple shirt. Trust me. I see you more than you see yourself,” Mal said curtly. 

Instead of responding, Talon pulled on the shirt. Mal’s view was just the ceiling; Talon's bed head had been screenshotted one too many times for him to risk showing his face in the morning. He picked out a pair of dark jeans and then went to the bathroom, leaving Mal to her own devices. 

He styled his hair and tried to see what Mal was saying about how his hair looked better in this shirt. He guessed it made it look a little more purple, but the bathroom light was too harsh to really get a comprehensive view. 

Talon quickly finished getting ready and bid Mal his typical “see you soon” before hanging up on her. He spent a couple minutes staring at himself in his mirror to psyche himself up for the day. Claw passed by, stared at the teen, and shook his head in disbelief. 

“Bye, Uncle Claw!” Talon chirped as he headed to the door, “By the way, I’m bringing over someone from school to work on a final project.”

“Okay. I’ll probably be home around 4pm today. Tomorrow, I’ll be there all day, so I’m cutting today a little short.” Uncle Claw informed. 

Talon shut the door and drove to school. He lived far enough away to merit driving a car to school, and since Penny was coming home with him, he wouldn’t push the limit by extending their time together by walking home. 

Wednesday classes went by normally for the two, even Bio was pretty tame today. They had their 20 minutes at the end of class and they planned what they were going to work on later that day. 

At the end of French, Penny would typically go meet up with Kayla and walk home together. Today was different. Penny stuck around a little longer and executed the plan that had been determined during Bio. 

She went to her locker under the guise of grabbing a book to get ahead in class while Talon sauntered to his car. Penny pulled out her phone and waited by her locker for a few minutes before heading to the parking lot. Most of the student body was out of the school by then but she still kept her guard up when making her way to Talon’s car. 

Blasting his old Coldplay songs through his crappy car speakers, Talon scrolled through his phone aimlessly. He noticed Penny inching towards his car in the corner of his eye and couldn’t help a sly grin creeping up on his face before turning back to his phone. 

He heard the door open before he saw her. She sat down gingerly and clutched her backpack in her lap before turning to Talon and saying, “Thanks for the ride.”

“Yeah, no problem. I live like 15 minutes away walking so driving is easier for getting to school on time,” he chuckled awkwardly. 

Penny echoed his awkward chuckle as Talon pulled out of the parking space. The car ride was silent, Penny toyed with the idea of saying something and relegated herself to just listening to the music. This is probably the most awkward I’ve ever felt in my entire life . 

Talon tried to keep his mind blank of thoughts while he was driving. If he remembered that Penny (!!!) was sitting next to him, he would probably lose his careful control of the car. He was a good driver; he usually drove his friends and he was good at focusing on the road. 

Penny was a different story. When she occupied his thoughts, she really occupied his thoughts. It was like she was an army general taking control of another country. Talon pushed these thoughts out of his mind and focused on the familiar streets of slightly more suburban Metro City. 

When they arrived at his house, Talon couldn’t help but let out an audible sigh of relief. They had made it in one piece and everything was fine . Penny gave him a look when he sighed and climbed out of the car. 

Talon took the lead and opened the door with a flourish, “Welcome to my humble abode.”

“Doesn’t look humble to me,” mumbled Penny. Talon lived in an actual house. She lived in an apartment complex, it was cute, but it was not as lavish as Talon’s ‘abode’ seemed to her. 

“Sooo,” he drawled, “do you want the tour before or after we work?”

“Before. I can’t think effectively this close to the end of school.”

“Oki doki. You can set your stuff down here, we’ll work here until my uncle comes home.” He pointed to the granite table in the middle of what looked like the kitchen. “This, by the way, is the kitchen.”

He went around the rest of the house and showed Penny where things were located. He made sure to show her the bathroom, it would be less awkward to show it to her on the tour than for her to ask for directions while they were working. 

There was a surprising lack of jabs to each other until Talon asked, “so Penn’ what do you think?”

“It definitely fits your ego,” Penny said off the top of her head. When she realized what she said she backtracked, “Sorry, I don’t know why I said that, I didn’t mean it.”

Talon just stood there looking shocked. He repressed the urge to clap back with another rude comment but held his tongue. If they were going to get any work done, one of them had to be civil. 

“That’s alright, Penny,” he said through a fake smile, “old habits die hard.”

Talon situated himself on one side of the island as Penny was doing the same on the other side so that they could face each other. 

Penny broke the silence this time, “so what kind of physical aspect are we going to do for our project?”

Asking this question was the equivalent of trumpets blaring the arrival of a new army. It was like declaring war. Penny would definitely push for a powerpoint presentation and Talon would want to make a model. Deciding which type of media would be used was going to be the biggest challenge for the pair. 

Talon pointed this out to Penny and Penny conceded this fact and then went quiet. 

“Well… what if we did both?”

“What? Slick would say that we didn’t work together on it, and I do not want to lose points,” complained Talon. 

“No, no. We wouldn’t lose points because we would still be working together. I could work on a powerpoint that I can talk about while you show off a model. I’m guessing that you’ll probably make a mechanical model because engineering. And if you make it move, then I can explain the actual numbers of outputs and stuff during the cycle while you operate the model...” Penny started ranting about her ideas and while jabbering, she pulled out her laptop and typed out her ideas in bullet points. 

Talon couldn’t help but watch in awe. Seeing her thought process in action was like watching an action movie. Her tangents seemed to have nothing in common, but when he checked the document it made complete sense. It was nothing like his careful deliberation. 

“… So I think that if during glycolysis you manage to make the machine look like it’s breathing so we can show off anaerobic respiration by not having it complete the cycle and have it not work after a certain amount of the passive cycle it would work really well…”

Talon was getting lost in her complicated explanations and wanted to stop her, but clearly she was planning out the entire project, so he just nodded when it seemed like he should nod. 

“… I think this will work! Talon, I can’t believe I’m saying this, but this project is going to be awesome. There is definitely a way that we can justify our working together, especially in the actual presentation of the project!” Penny got up and hopped around happily and raised her hands to give Talon a high-five over the table. 

Talon raised his hands to complete the process without a word. He was shocked at seeing Penny be this enthusiastic about a school project. Sure, it was clear that she loved school, but getting excited over figuring out schematics for their project was borderline nerdy. 

Penny sensed his shock and immediately retreated and sincerely said, “I really think we have a good shot at getting a good grade on this project.”

“Alrighty then. Well, since you planned it, what do I have to do?”

Penny snapped back into excited student mode as she rambled on about what Talon specifically would be doing. (She had tried to explain what she was doing alongside his physical model but he got confused.)

“Okay, so to reiterate, I make two models. One for cell respo, one for photosynth. The respo model can do anaerobic respiration without putting in a certain amount of input, so that section will have to be battery-powered,” he thought out loud. 

“Yes, and my job in conjunction with yours is saying what each part of the machine represents. I think you have enough work on your hands just having to build so I’m taking care of explaining the information in relation to the model.”

Talon half listened, but he was still planning out his side of the project. He had to figure out everything in his head before writing down the plan. If he missed a detail it would screw over the final product. 

Penny noticed his silence and could tell he was working through the problem in his head, so she refrained from adding any more unnecessary commentary. 

After a few minutes, Talon pulled out his laptop and wrote down his thoughts and notes, “Okay, I think I’ve got everything figured out. I can definitely finish the two models in the three weeks we have left.”

“Perfect!” said Penny, she felt a little bit bad that she couldn’t help with his side more, “is there anything I can do to help you out?”

“Penn, you basically designed this model by telling me exactly what you want the model to be able to do and at what time. The least I can do is build the model by myself. Trust me, Penny, this is going to be a breeze.” Talon said easily. 

Penny blushed at his honest response. This was the first time that she had received an almost compliment from him. “Okay, but if you need anything, don’t hesitate to ask!”

Talon nodded his reply and went to work on listing the materials he would need to start on the project. They worked in tandem silence. Penny’s keyboard click clacked away and Talon occasionally jotted something down on his notepad.

“Hey Penny, I think I have all the supplies I need to build this except for one or two things, do you want to take a break and go to Home Depot?”

“Oh yes! Thanks for breaking me out of that stupor. I thought I was going to explode. I have every point down on the document, but I need to start drafting it into a cohesive presentation.”

Talon led Penny to his room because he needed to properly make sure that he had all the supplies he needed for his project. (Plus, he cleaned his room and it would be a waste to not show it off.) He made a beeline for his stand up desk where he had tools strewn about in an almost organized fashion. 

Meanwhile, Penny gingerly sat on Talon’s bed and assessed her surroundings. He had a couple posters above his bed from a comic that she had no idea he read. His bookshelf was basically nonexistent and she recognized all the books they had for class assignments and a couple that looked to be complex engineering manuals or books on planes and trains. His closet looked clean on the outside, and she was not going to dare open them for fear of what might lurk behind them. The mirror against his wall had a couple haphazardly stuck on pictures of his friends and one from their Freshman year English class where Penny was glaring daggers at him. He had a couple of awards on top of the bookshelf and his room seemed very cozy and lived in. A far cry from the rest of the Claw household. 

Talon was busy muttering to himself and kept crossing things off of his list when he found them. Penny took that opportunity to get a closer look at his room and stood up quietly. She grabbed one of the comic books and started flipping through it when Talon broke his silence. 

“You ready to go, Penny?”

She shut the book quickly and nodded fervently, “yep! All good!” 

Talon eyed the book she had just closed and said, “y’know, that one has been one of my favorites since I was a kid. I love the art and the storyline just brings it together really nicely.”

“Oh. I haven’t read it yet, but it’s been on my list for a while. I haven’t had time to read for pleasure since school has gotten so crazy.” 

“I’ll let you borrow it when we finish this project.”

They jumped into the car and another round of silence kept up. The car was cursed to be silent it seemed and neither one of them dared break it. 

The pair hopped out of the car and Talon took the lead as he made his way to the lightbulb section, “I love the smell of Home Depot in the afternoon,” he commented. 

“As opposed to in the morning or at night?” quipped Penny. 

“The afternoon just has a certain allure to it that you don’t really see in the morning or night. It just feels like the project is on it’s way there and you need to go back to get any forgotten supplies.”

“Ah.” Penny pretended to understand what he was getting at, but she couldn’t be bothered, “this is my first time at a Home Depot actually.”

Talon stopped in his tracks, “WHAT?!”

“Oh, don’t look so surprised. You think my Uncle Gadget would ever bring me to a manly store like this? I love him, but he never likes bringing me to places where other men notice girls.”

“Wow. Seriously? Just because you’re a girl doesn’t mean you don’t like to do constructive things. I mean, look at Mal.”

“True. I think it was obvious from a young age that I didn’t really have any desire to put together new inventions though. I just haven’t bothered to go on Home Depot errands with Uncle Gadget. He usually takes too long anyway.”

“Huh. Well, I’m glad that I’ve gotten to take your Home Depot virginity. It’s a momentous occasion that we will definitely be celebrating with hot chocolate when we get home.”

Penny chuckled at his phrasing, “sounds like a plan.”

Talon grabbed his lightbulb and other miscellaneous supplies that Penny did not recognize and the two left the store exchanging casual banter. (Penny just asked questions about his supplies that left her more confused than enlightened. 

When they arrived back at Talon’s place, Talon immediately went to work on heating up milk and grabbing two packets of hot chocolate and the toppings out of the fridge and pantry. Penny just watched his bustling out of the corner of her eye while she feigned working at the script. 

“Penny, come here. The milk is boiling. You can put whatever toppings you like on your drink.”

She watched as Talon loaded his hot chocolate with marshmallows and then cover them in whipped cream in a very aesthetic fashion. He then added even more marshmallows on top of that and added brown sprinkles and one of those straw cookies she had forgotten the name of. 

“Wow” she said when he turned and showed off his drink. 

“Awed? Impressed? I’ve been making myself hot chocolate every winter and every time I make sure to stock up on the good toppings,” Talon bragged, “if you like, I can make you one as well! I know it’s pretty intimidating if you’ve never done it before.”

“Yes please!” Penny bit back a retort that was on the tip of her tongue, but if he could play nice, so could she. 

He loaded her mug with just as much whipped cream as his own and instead of adding brown sprinkles, he found red sanding sugar that matched her sweatshirt. 

“One red sprinkled hot chocolate for a Ms. Penny Brown,” Talon announced with a mock bow. 

“Why thank you, kind chef.” Penny returned a curtsy and looked at the masterpiece, “wow! This looks really good, Talon! Wait, put yours down for a second. I want to put it on my instagram.”

Instead of responding, Talon did as Penny asked and hid a sheepish smile behind his arm. He didn’t dare ruin the fragile whatever that was going on between them. They sipped on their drinks as soon as Penny had completed her photoshoot. 

“This is really good. Thanks again, Talon.”

“No prob, Penn,” he responded in a cool tone. 

Penny went back to actually doing work while Talon worked on preliminary designs on his notebook. He knew what parts he needed, but how to make it the most aesthetically pleasing was the most important part. 

Talon heard the telltale jangle of keys a few minutes later and braced himself for whatever Uncle Claw was going to say about him having a girl in the house. He looked at Penny and she didn’t seem to notice anything was awry as she was completely locked in on her work. 

“Talon, what do you want for dinner tonight? Spaghetti or chicken and rice?” Dr. Claw asked in his gravelly tone. 

Penny jumped at the first sound of him calling Talon’s name. His voice is so deep! And then went back to her project, Talon’s uncle was not addressing her and she wanted to get as much done as possible so she could return to the warmth of her cozy apartment. 

“Hello to you too, Uncle Claw. I’m feeling chicken and rice tonight, I can make spaghetti for myself tomorrow night.”

“Sounds good,” Dr. Claw said as he walked past the kitchen and noticed Penny sitting there. “Who’s the girl?”

“This is Penny Brown, she’s my partner for the bio winter project. You met her at the merger between MAD and HQ. She’s John Gadget’s niece.” 

“Ah yes. A promising young woman,” Claw sniffed. “Well then, keep working hard. I expect great things from you both. Penny, will you be staying for dinner?”

“No, but thank you for the invite Dr. Claw! I have other homework to finish later, but Talon and I got the jumpstart we needed for our project.” Penny smiled self-assuredly. 

“Let me know when you’re ready to leave and I’ll take you home. I know I live pretty far from downtown Metro.” Talon said nonchalantly. 

“Give me five more minutes to wrap up the intro and I’ll be ready to go.”

They worked in silence again until Penny grabbed her bag and looked pointedly at Talon. “Thank you Dr. Claw for letting us work here this afternoon!” Penny said cheerily. 

Dr. Claw poked his head out of the kitchen, “Yes, of course. Keep up the good work.”

The pair drove in relative silence (Penny had to give him directions to her apartment). When Talon finally made it, Penny thanked him for the ride profusely. 

“Really Talon. Thanks so much for the ride home and for all the work we got done. If you want to meet up on Friday afternoon, I’m pretty sure Gadget will be at the office all day for some event he has to prepare.” She continued hesitantly, “he has a space in the living room dedicated to building things, so I’m sure he would be happy someone was putting it to good use!”

Talon wanted to laugh at her awkward questioning but he refrained. They had made a lot of progress today in terms of their friendship being more friendly and he wanted to keep up the streak. “Yeah, Friday sounds fine. See ya tomorrow, Penny.”

“Bye! Thanks again!” called Penny as he drove away.

Chapter Text

Thursday went by normally. Talon and Penny were civil with each other, not friendly, but also not having weird competitions (that only they understood). Friday went the same way and the two of them met by Talon’s car once again to get to Penny’s house. 

“So,” Penny drawled, “this is my ‘humble abode’ as you might call it.” 

They stood there awkwardly for a couple seconds wondering who would be the next one to speak. It totally was not because of the author who really did not know how to get to the next section. 

“So you mentioned that your dad had an engineering area?” Talon said uncertainly. 

“Oh! Yes! It’s right over here. I talked to him this morning and he said he was fine with you using whatever tools you need, just not to touch the halfway built things.”

They walked into the apartment still in that awkward silence. It felt a little more awkward being at Penny’s house than it did at Talon’s because Talon could fake ease whereas Penny could not. 

“I guess I can give you a quick house tour before we start working?” Penny trailed off in a question.

“Yeah! I want to see what your room looks like.”

Penny rolled her eyes, “of course you do, Talon. I’ll have you know, it is perfectly clean today.”

“Today? As opposed to other days?” Talon inquired. 

“No comment,” she said with a small grin. “So this is my room.”

Talon did not know what to respond and instead took in the whole vibe of the room. Her bed took up a very small amount of space which astounded him. His bed was front and center; the most important thing in the room. Her desk was what was the main attraction of the room. She had pictures beneath a plastic protector and each picture looked like it had a very specific spot. Her bookshelf was massive and did not look to be organized (Penny organizes her books by her favorite series). The dresser in the room was a moderate size and that had a lot of little figurines and bobbles that Talon desperately wanted to spend time looking at but Penny stopped him from his analysis. 

“Okay, we’re done here.” Penny basically dragged Talon out of her room and showed him the rest of the apartment, “so this is the bathroom, Uncle Gadget’s room, our dog, Brain is in there, the living room which you’ve seen and the kitchen which we walked through getting in.” 

“Thank you for the house tour. I’ve gotta say my favorite part had to be your room.”

“Creep.” Penny deadpanned, “Let’s get working then. I think I can finish the actual presentation but it would be helpful to run through it a couple times with your design.” 

“I’m also pretty close to being done, just need to tweak a couple things. I couldn’t help myself and last night I got pretty close to the finished product for the cell respo model. The photosynthesis model is in the works, but it’s easier so I should have it done in a couple hours.” 

Penny gave him a nod, acknowledged his work, and then went to her work. 

The next hour passed in relative silence, nothing but the clack of Penny’s keyboard and Talon’s soft clanging could be heard. Penny had just started on the conclusion of the presentation when the door opened. 

“I’m home!” chorused Gadget. “Penny, I brought home some dinner - oh! Hello Penny’s friend. Penny, I didn’t know you were going to have a friend over today!”

Talon refrained from saying it too loudly but he muttered it loud enough for only Penny to hear, “oooooo Penny didn’t tell her dad she was having a boy over.”

With a glare, Penny said, “Oh Uncle Gadget, I thought I told you I was going to work on a project this afternoon while you were at work, wasn’t there that all day inspection that you had to lead?” 

“That’s next Friday, Penny.”

“Oh shoot,” Penny cursed. “Talon and I can move to my room, there’s enough space if I take the bed. I’m almost done with my portion by the way,” she turned to Talon. 

“Alright then. I’ll be playing ‘Call of Dinosaurs’ in the living room. Talon, will you be staying for dinner? We have more than enough food.”

Talon looked at Penny before responding. She gave a small shrug as she did not care whether he stayed or not. “Sure! Thank you so much Mr. Gadget.”

“Oh please, call me Uncle. Any friend of Penny’s is a new niece or nephew of mine,” Gadget announced importantly. 

“Talon, you can set up your station on my desk.” Penny cut in before Gadget could say anything else. He hadn’t said anything exactly embarrassing yet but knowing Gadget it was only a matter of time. 

“Hey!” Gadget called, “no funny business in there.”

“We’re just friends, Uncle.” Penny sighed. 

Talon just kept quiet as he gathered his supplies and started moving them to Penny’s room. It only took him three trips, one for each of the models and one for supplies that were not attached to the model yet. 

Once they were settled in Penny’s room, the door surprisingly closed ( Penny must think Gadget’s going to eavesdrop ) Talon said, “friends, huh?”

“I couldn’t very well tell him that we’re academic rivals that are only working together because of this stupid project worth most of our grade now could I?”

Talon paused for a second thinking about what other options Penny could have said. 

“We’re actually enemies and we hate each other but are stuck working on this project.” Yikes that one wouldn’t work and would only raise more questions. 

“We’re just partners for the school project.” Honestly, probably could have worked but partners would push it. 

“We’re actually just in the talking stage right now.” Hilarious, but probably would not have gone over with Gadget well. 

“Yeah, you’ve got a point,” was all Talon responded with. 

The two went back to their quiet and at some point Penny pulled out her phone to play games as she had finished her essay. Talon kept on tinkering with his supplies until he suddenly stood up. Penny looked up from her phone in question. 

“Done.” He said reverently. 

Penny put her phone down and moved her laptop off her lap, “Awesome! Do you want to do a practice presentation after dinner or before?” 

“Definitely after. I could eat an entire horse.”

Penny giggled, “then let’s go see what he brought!”

They walked out of her bedroom, Penny carefully closing her door. You could never be too careful with animals in the house. 

Speak of the devil and he shall come; Brain was right in the junction of the hallway to the bedrooms and the kitchen. Brain made a beeline for Talon and demanded to be pet with one sharp bark and an enthusiastic wagging of his tail. 

“Awwwwww, hi little cutie!!! Do you want some pets from Tally?” Talon said in a very high pitched voice that made Penny do a full 360 to ensure that she actually heard those words come out of his mouth right then. 

Penny stood stunned for a couple seconds, enraptured by Talon petting her dog and then shook herself out of her small stupor and said, “His name is Brain. And he likes it when you scratch the left side of his belly, just trust me.”

Talon proceeded to follow Penny’s direction and Brain’s right leg started moving of its own accord. He smiled up at Penny and Penny’s heart did not skip a beat. Talon stopped petting Brain and stood back up to follow Penny into the kitchen. 

“Hey kiddos! Supper is served!” Gadget called from his place in the kitchen where he was emptying a box of rice onto a plate. 

“Mmm, smells like Indian. Did you get it from the place on the corner of Sunset and Beverly?” Indian food was one of Penny’s guilty pleasures and they did not eat it that often because it was used as a special treat for good grades and the like. Penny did not know what she did to merit her coveted chicken tikka but she wasn’t complaining. 

Talon and Penny sat at the kitchen table and Talon reached down to once again pet Brain. Penny just sat there and fiddled with her hands, waiting for Gadget to put the plates on the table. 

“Alright, kiddos, serve yourselves and dig in!” Gadget said in a very joyous tone. 

“Thank you, Uncle Gadget!” said Penny as she lunged for the plate of rice. 

“Thank you, Mr. Gadget,” said Talon, patiently waiting to pour some rice on his plate. 

“Oh, don’t call me mister, it makes me feel old. ‘Uncle’ or just ‘Gadget’ will do fine.” 

Talon did not reply to Gadget. He did not want to call him Uncle or just Gadget because it might get back to Uncle Claw and that would not end well for him. Claw was a good uncle, but a parent, he was not. 

Penny finally moved on to the chicken tikka and passed the rice to Talon and he happily scooped some onto his plate. The three of them fell into a content silence while eating their food. Talon found it odd seeing Gadget so quiet, he was used to seeing him always chatting with other people at events, but he guessed that everyone had to have their quiet times at some point. 

Penny was the one to break the silence. “So Uncle Gadget, could we present our project to you after we finish dinner? Talon and I want to get a mock presentation before we have to actually do it in class next week.”

“Of course! I look forward to seeing your device in the works. I didn’t get to see much of it, but what I saw looked very promising, young man,” he looked at Talon as he said this and turned back to Penny, “and of course, I look forward to seeing what you’ve written, Penny.”

“It honestly was not as bad as I thought it might have been. Talon and I combined our notes and it made writing the essay and speech SO easy. Talon’s notes added specific sentences the teacher said which I never realized would be so useful.” She smiled shyly at her plate as she spoke. 

Talon contributed to the conversation, “my portion was pretty easy too. Penny described what she wanted in a lot of detail, so all I had to do was put it into action and figure out what kind of tools would be best to represent the processes.” 

“It’s so nice to hear you two work together well. I remember back when I was in highschool I was put in a group with this bully I didn’t get along with and the whole project was awful from start to finish. I think that was the only assignment I failed in highschool. Anyway, it’s always nice to see good teamwork.” Gadget leaned towards Talon conspiratorially, “Penny doesn’t always get along with project people because of how stubborn she is with what she wants to happen.” 

“Hey! That’s not true. I got along just fine with Camille when we were paired up. She just didn’t want to put as much effort into the project as I did.” Penny harrumphed and crossed her arms. 

Gadget just gave Talon a knowing look and Talon couldn’t help but let a chuckle escape. Penny just glared at the two and went back to her food.  

Talon had already finished eating (he didn’t want to take too much and look like he was eating all of their food) and asked if he could be excused. “I want to set up the models and make sure that they are in working order before we start presenting,” he explained. 

“Of course, go right ahead,” said Gadget. 

Talon ambled to Penny’s room and took his time taking in her room while he was alone in there. He really didn’t need to check the models, he knew they were working fine and he had already tested them a couple times during the creation process. Talon turned his attention to Penny’s dresser and started analyzing all of her keepsakes. There were a couple origami ladybugs and a frog that looked like it could jump if you pressed on its back. There were a couple of owl figurines; Talon was not surprised to find that particular animal in her room. But the thing that most caught his attention was a framed comic that was leaning against the wall. He didn’t dare pick it up, but looked at the title and found that it was one of his favorite comic series. He stared at it for a couple seconds in awe and then got a little burst of excitement (the kind you get when someone else has a similar interest as you and definitely not the kind you get when you may or may not be developing a crush). 

Talon had to drag himself away from her dresser and went to ‘his’ corner of the room and looked over the models quickly before picking one up and moving it to the tiny living room. He could hear conversation going on in the kitchen, but other than a few words like “just a friend” and a loud “no!” he didn’t hear much. 

He went back to Penny’s room and looked at the photosynthesis model more thoroughly, it was arguably the harder process to model and he wanted it to run smoothly. While he was checking up on it, Penny walked in and shut the door kind of loudly before collapsing on her bed and groaning into her pillow. 

“You okay there, Penn?” 

All he got was another loud groan in response and he resolved to leave her alone until she decided she wanted to talk to him. He fiddled with the catalyst of the model and saw Penny stirring in the corner of his eye. 

“I’m fine. Just annoyed at Gadget for seeing something where there is nothing.” 

“Want to talk about it?” Talon asked genuinely. 

“Thanks, but no thanks. Maybe some other time,” Penny said dismissively, “You ready for our mock presentation?”

Talon nodded in reply, took his model into his arms, and followed Penny out of her room. He set up his model on the small coffee table and Penny stood off to the side and gave him a “are you ready?” look. Talon gave a small nod. 

“Hello, my name is Penny Brown, and my partner for this project is Talon Claw. Today we are presenting on the wonders of both processes of cellular respiration and photosynthesis…” 

… 

“And that concludes our presentation. Thank you for your attention.” 

Gadget clapped politely, “Really great job Penn! I feel like I can recall this stuff from highschool now! You really kept me engaged the whole way through which is a rarity in the professional world. And Talon, you showed your expertise not just in building the machine, but also in explaining what each part was meant to symbolize. You have a bright future ahead of you as well young man.” 

The two of them thanked Gadget for his compliments and then looked at each other awkwardly. Talon, wanting to get rid of the awkward staring at each other, held his hand up for a high five. Penny beamed and gave him an enthusiastic high five. 

“We totally got this in the bag for Wednesday,” said Talon. 

Penny did not reply and just smiled at Talon in a very nice way. Her thoughts were few and far between: did I really explain it that well or is Gadget just telling me as is his parental obligation?

Talon cocked his head at Penny; her smile was slightly off and bordering on not being rooted in the present. “Hey Penny, whatever you’re thinking, you’re wrong. You did really well on the presentation,” he said sincerely. He added more shyly, “I was honestly impressed with your vocabulary, you sounded like Dr. Slickstien, only younger and more feminine.”

Penny snapped out of her stupor and laughed at Talon’s half joke. “I’m surprised you can give a compliment, Talon. Haven’t heard many of those coming from you,” she said snidely. 

“Hey! I give compliments when they are merited. Maybe you just haven’t done anything worth my compliments,” Talon shot back with an even snider smile. 

“Now now, children. Let’s not be mean to each other,” Gadget tried to console, “I think that you are both capable of giving meaningful compliments to each other on the work that you have done. Penny, since Talon already said something about your presentation, it’s only fair you do so as well.”

Penny inwardly rolled her eyes at her uncle trying to play peacemaker. “Talon, you did a really good job on the models. I wasn’t surprised at how they worked since I know you’re good at engineering things, but I was surprised at the amount of care you took in putting my ideas into play within the parts of the machine. You really thought it out well, and I appreciate the time and effort you spent doing so,” she said very honestly. 

Talon was silent for a minute, gaping at Penny and then muttered out a small “thank you”. 

“See, that wasn’t so hard! Now if you two will excuse me, I have got some ‘Call of Dinosaurs’ to get back to. Talon, it was very nice meeting you, and best of luck on your presentation!” 

“Thank you, sir,” replied Talon. 

Gadget just rolled his eyes as he booted up the gaming system. Talon gathered one of the models while Penny took the other as they headed toward her room. 

“Well, I should head home. I wouldn’t want to upset Uncle Claw by coming home too late,” Talon explained. “We are so set for Wednesday, we’re gonna blow Slick out of the water with this one.” 

“I hope so! We did spend a lot of time laboring on this project,” Penny added. “You know, I’ve been thinking that Slick put us together on purpose.”

“He totally did. I think we must have ticked him off that week… I can’t exactly remember what we were arguing about in his class but it must have been bad if he put us through a long-term project.”

Penny thought for a second, “was that the week we were learning about how to categorize things? Like the classification system thing?”

“Oh yeahhhhh! It was definitely that unit. I still think that my phylogenetic tree was more accurate,” he offered. 

“He literally said that we were both wrong. The tree was almost right, you just got two of the traits mixed up and so did I.”

“Yeah, but the traits you mixed up were more wrong than mine.”

Penny huffed, “okay, Talon. I think it’s time for you to head home now.”

“Indeed it is. Buh-bye, Pretty Penny,” he saluted and winked at her as he left her room, leaving Penny a subtle shade of red (that he could tell in the moment). He sauntered to his car and contemplated his previous words as a blush spread on his face. I cannot believe I just called her pretty to her face . 

I cannot believe he just called me pretty to my face . Penny screamed into her pillow with uncontained glee. Does Talon like me? hOw?!?!? I cannoT believe my life. My rival in all things school, and honestly life, just called me pretty. There’s no way. This went on for some time, many thoughts turning in her head and all of them ending up with Talon at the forefront.

Chapter Text

The day of the presentation…

“Kayla,” Penny whined, “I am so nervous, I am literally shaking. Look at my hand!”

Penny raised her hand at Kayla and it was indeed shaking. “Penn, you gotta calm down. Take a chill pill and eat your sandwich.”

Penny did not respond and shakily ate her sandwich when she felt a presence near her. She turned around before Talon could make his presence known.

“Penny,” he said sternly, “you are going to be just fine. We have gone over this presentation enough times, there is absolutely nothing you need to worry about.”

Penny just looked up at Talon and after finishing the bite of her sandwich said, “Talon, there are a lot of things I can worry about. What if I stumble over my words? What if Slick gives us a bad grade because we didn’t do things the way he wanted us to? What if-”

“Penn. You have got to stop. Worrying isn’t going to get you anywhere.” He sat down at the table next to Penny, “All we can do is know that we did our best. The grade is a secondary thing, we learned a ton about these processes and it’s the learning that counts.”

Penny laughed in disbelief, “Are you okay Mr. “I have to be the top student in all my classes”? Sounds like you’re starting to care more about the content and less about the grades… Doesn’t sound like you…”

Penny continued to chuckle as Mal made her way to the table and sat next to Kayla.

“Did Talon give one of his inspirational speeches?” Mal plopped down as she said, “I love his speeches. They say everything and nothing at all.”

Talon briskly turned toward Mal, “They do not say nothing. It’s what I truly believe, I just choose to share my thoughts when the situation is stressful enough to permit it.” Talon snootily raised his nose at Mal.

Penny, Kayla, and Mal all started laughing at him while Talon pretended to pout at them. After a few seconds of listening to them cackle, Talon stopped pouting and put on his “intelligent face”.

“See, what you fail to notice is that Penny is now not as stressed as she was before. Laughter is actually proven to help reduce stress. When you laugh your muscles relax, so it is good for relieving the physical stress that you might be putting yourself under for no reason.”

“He always has to add some kind of jab to me,” Penny muttered to herself. Then an intrusive thought about what had happened on Friday night made her blush and she went a little red.

Kayla spoke up before the silence could get awkward, “you know Talon, you make yourself seem like you’ve never been stressed in your life, but I’m sure you have some kind of pointless stress story. Mal?” Kayla turned towards Mal who was staring at Kayla with a wistful smile on her face that turned more menacing once Kayla finished her thought.

“Well there was this one time… So Talon and I ..” Mal continued on with her story and Penny was not listening to a word she said.

She could not stop thinking about what Talon had said on Friday night. He called her pretty and now he was sitting next to her and she felt like she could not think straight. But at least the nerves for the presentation were gone.

She sneaked a glance at him (in hindsight, a very obvious glance since she was sitting next to him). Her slight head turn alerted Talon and he looked at her at the same time. Talon gave her a genuine smile and Penny could feel the butterflies in her stomach rioting.

She averted her eyes quickly after that because she knew that she probably looked like a tomato after that smile of his.

Talon just smiled to himself when Penny turned away. He had given her a nice smile in the hopes of reassuring her and he did not think that she would react with a blush. She’s so darn cute. I can’t help but smile at her.

“... and that’s how I got Talon to stop being stressed out all the time. I think he learned his lesson that day and since then he has this “mightier-than-thou” vibe about being stressed out about things. But yeah. That’s basically the story.” Mal concluded.

Kayla laughed, “that totally sounds out of character for Talon!”

“Yes, and since then, I have never let stress impede my academic performance.” Talon said as he tore his gaze away from Penny. “But seriously, Penny, we are going to be completely fine. I’ll tell you what, if we get anything lower than a 95 on this project I will email Slick with clarification as to why we didn’t get a 100.”

“Now you’re being too cocky, Talon,” said Mal with a cock of her head.

“I am being the perfect amount of cocky. Penny and I make an unstoppable team. Both of the top students in our grade paired together on a project means that there is no way we don’t end up with a 100. Honestly, I’m expecting to get some extra credit out of this.” Talon sat up a little straighter when he said this.

Penny laughed at Talon’s posturing, “You’re so right, Talon. We have this in the bag. We did go pretty above and beyond with our physical model and powerpoint.”

The bell chose to ring at this moment and the group started to gather their things as Talon said, “Don’t stress too much when we have to present. We put in effort and it is going to show in our presentation.”

Penny looked at Talon oddly, he kept saying nice things and it was slightly jarring to hear him attempt to console her irrepressible nerves.

“Good luck Penny! You got this!” Kayla exclaimed and with a more withheld tone, “and I guess you too, Talon.”

Talon just rolled his eyes in response. He would not pretend to like Kayla anymore than she would pretend she tolerated him. They never had any spats, but their best friends did and they had to listen to stories about the other enough times to create animosity.

Penny was too preoccupied with gathering her lunch trash to thank Kayla who was already heading to her next class with Mal. She balled up the wrapper her sandwich was in and clutched the aluminum foil tightly. Talon saw this action and grabbed her wrist with one hand and took out the foil and tossed it in a nearby trash can with another. The hand that had her wrist made to let go but Penny grabbed his hand and tightened her grip around it as if to replace the quasi-stress ball she had made with the aluminum foil.

Looking up sheepishly, Penny relaxed her grip a bit, letting Talon have the option of dropping her hand if he wanted. Talon did not take that option and instead firmly squeezed it as they made their way to their biology class.

Kayla definitely did not take a subtle picture of the two lovebirds and Mal did not snicker as she did so.

Upon making it to the entrance of the classroom, Talon let go of Penny’s hand, but not without a quiet but firm murmur, “We got this Pen.”

“Hello class! Today is presentation day, I hope you all prepared adequately for this project as it is a big portion of your grade in this class. I’m sure your presentations will be wonderful,” Dr. Slickstein collapsed his hands behind his back and strode to his desk where his all-too-familiar clipboard lay.

“Let us begin with Lacey and Maddie…”

As the presentations droned on and on, Penny started to get more relaxed. She had this in the bag and honestly, their project was sure to outshine the other student’s.

Talon was the opposite, it seemed like as the presentations went on, the more jittery he got. Watching everybody go without already being done felt like torture and as Caden and Jack yammered on about photosynthesis, he felt himself paying way to close attention to how they spoke.

Penny saw Talon’s stress and inched closer to him as a show of solidarity, but he was too lost in his own brain to even notice her inching closer. It wasn’t until she put her hand on his leg reassuringly that he came back to reality.
He gave her a sheepish smile and then looked down at her hand with a waggle of his eyebrows that made Penny speedily remove her hand. She gave him a dirty look and he smiled back sassily.

The class started to clap as the presentation had just concluded. “Thank you Caden and Jack, I really like the way you modeled the outputs, very thoughtful of you guys. I think that just leaves Penny and Talon to give their presentation.”

Penny looked at Talon self-assuredly and he would have given her a smile but he was already making a move for the models he had made. Penny made her way to follow Talon to grab one of the models. To fill the silence Dr. Slickstein started yammering about the upcoming days as it was close to winter break.

Talon and Penny finally made their way upfront and waited patiently while Slick continued his spiel.

“... so that’s what next semester looks like. Anyway, last but not least, Penny and Talon!”

Penny took a deep breath, made eye contact with Talon, and began to recite her presentation, “Hello, if you don’t already know my name is Penny Brown, and my partner for this project is Talon Claw. Today, like all of you just did so eloquently, we are presenting on the wonders of both processes of cellular respiration and photosynthesis…”

“And that concludes our presentation. Thank you for your attention!”

After Penny finished her closing statement there was a beat of silence until the class applauded for both of them. Talon looked at Penny and she turned at the same time and both smiled very happily.

“Wonderful presentation Talon and Penny. Your model is rather impressive… May I ask how you went about creating it?” Dr. Slickstein moved closer to the models and looked almost covetingly at the models.

Talon responded with a long tirade that left the entire class on their phones. Dr. Slick was aptly listening to every word he said and Penny was smiling to the side as she listened to the explanation that she had gotten from him almost every day of their working together.

“Talon,” Dr. Slickstein said very seriously, “would it be possible for me to keep these models in the classroom for next year? These are truly ingeniously made and make both processes so much easier to digest.”

Talon looked starstruck for a moment before responding, “It would be my honor.”

Penny looked on and had the biggest grin on her face. Talon was getting the recognition he deserved and it was nice to see him in such a grateful position.

“Thank you, Talon,” praised Slick. “Wonderful presentation, you two. I will say when I put you too together I was very curious to see how the project would turn out. I think you both exceeded my expectations, in both the project and showing that you can move past whatever feud/grudge thing you had going on.”

Penny and Talon looked at each other during this praise and Penny could see that Talon wanted to say something but held back. We’ll have to debrief after class about this. I’m sure he’s not too happy about being one of Dr. Slickstein’s experiments.

The bell rang to signal the end of class at that moment, and Penny was thankful that she didn’t have to chat with Dr. Slickstein any longer. Talon had gone to the back of the classroom to get his backpack and Penny followed suit in grabbing her things and waited for him at the front of the classroom.

“Okay sooooooooo, how do you think we did?” asked Penny in a probing fashion.

“I mean obviously great,” said Talon as they walked out of the classroom. “Slick really liked the models. I can’t believe he’s going to keep them in his classroom for next year!”

“I know!!! It’s so exciting that our project has now left a legacy… Although, I am a bit peeved at Dr. Slickstein.”

“Don’t even get me started, Pen,” said Talon, “I just about ripped his head off when he said he wanted to see what would happen. Newsflash bud, we aren’t your next experiment!”

“I fully agree, but I feel like we rose to the challenge and absolutely showed off how effective we can be,” said Penny happily.

“Agreed, Pen.” Talon held out his hand for Penny to shake and said, “Pleasure doing business with you on this project.”

Penny took his hand and responded, “Likewise, Talon.”

They then went their separate ways (even though they were going to the same French class, they couldn’t have everybody thinking that they got along now.)

Two days later (Friday)…

“Y’know Penny, I kinda miss having Talon and Mal around at lunch. It feels like the project happened and we’re just back at where we were before,” remarked Kayla.

“I hate to admit it, but I feel the same way. It’s like we had a truce, an understanding even, and now we aren’t fighting like we used to, but it’s this weird in-between where everything just feels awkward.”

“Totally agree,” Kayla said, munching on today’s turkey sandwich.

“I mean, I told you about what happened Friday night and like I guess I just expected something to change maybe.” Kayla gave Penny a knowing look. “Not thAt way Kay, I mean, like maybe being friends or something…” Penny mumbled.

“Hey uhh, mind if we sit with you guys?” a voice said behind Penny.

“I feel like I’m missing out on some girl time when I’m stuck with that loser for a whole lunch period,” sighed Mal behind Kayla.

“OMG, yeah, you can totally join us, guys! As much as I love Penny, there’s only so much school chatter I can take in a lunch period.”

“Hey! I do not talk about school all the time,” said Penny indignantly. Talon had sat himself down right next to her at the lunch table and it was taking all of Penny’s willpower not to look at him.

“Sorry Penny, you totally do. Even when we weren’t at school you were talking about school.”

“We were working on our project, of course we weren’t going to talk about school!” countered Penny.

“Okay okay, no fighting, it’s already getting old,” Kayla said. “I just want to have a peaceful, friendly lunch with our friends.”

Mal took this as a clear sign to start talking about something, so she kept the conversation going with Kayla. Talon interjected a couple times and Penny was listening, but she didn’t really have anything to add to the conversation so she contentedly ate her lunch, still ignoring the presence beside her.

“And that’s why I think that the best movie is the 5th one,” said Kayla proudly.

The bell rang, signaling the end of the conversation and once again, Talon and Penny were headed in the same direction.

“Wanna walk to class together Pen?”

“Sure!” Penny chirped.

The walk was in almost a sort of awkward silence, but only because it was so far away from where they ate lunch. Until Talon broke the silence.

“So uh, you know how there’s that history exam next week on Tuesday? Would you umm want to come over so we can study for it together? I feel like I’m falling behind since I spent so much time on that bio project…”

Penny gave herself one singular quick second to calm her very loud thoughts and responded, “I’d love to! When do you want to study for it?”

Talon almost faltered his steps but rapidly recovered to say, “Does tonight work? I know it’s kind of late notice, but Claw’s not home tonight, so I figured we could get work done without being harassed by any adults haha. I could pick you up at your place if you want.”

“That’d be perfect! I wouldn’t want to have to ask Uncle Gadget if he could drive me, especially since he’s been working on some project at MAHQ that’s been taking up all his time. I’ll just text him now and we can head over to your place if that works?”

“Sounds good!” said Talon enthusiastically. The awkward silence returned in full force as Talon mentally went over what he needed to tidy in his room before Penny came over and probably saw his room again.

Penny felt the awkward silence and was languishing in it. There was nothing she could say in this moment that wouldn’t feel forced so she just tried to be comfortable but that wasn’t working either and just ended up in a difficult mental battle that she could not win.

Chapter Text

French ended and Talon looked at Penny questioningly. Penny gave an affirmative sort of nod. Their non-verbal communication with each other had apparently ramped up since the project and they could totally understand that Penny wouldn’t be stalling at her locker today and would just go straight with Talon to his car. 

Penny, of course, was dreading the backlash she might receive by doing this, especially since normally she walked home with Kayla but she stuck with her decision to walk with Talon. 

Talon was over the moon, Penny wouldn’t be scurrying to his car like she was afraid to be seen with him! It made him happy to know that Penny was choosing to not care about her peer’s opinions on being seen in his car with him. 

They idly chatted while they walked to his car, and Penny could feel a couple of odd eyes on her. Notably Kayla and Mal’s who were totally recording (Penny had texted Kayla to let her know that she wouldn’t be walking home with her and suggested she find a replacement if she wanted. Kayla took this in stride and asked Mal to walk with her.)

They got to the car with relatively no fuss and Talon turned on his Coldplay songs again, this time, opting to sing along instead of staying silent. Penny chuckled at his passionate rendition of Viva la Vida and started shyly singing the choruses with Talon. 

The smile on Talon’s face was infectious and Penny couldn’t help but smile too. He’s so cute when he smiles. I wish I had realized this sooner.

Talon had no thoughts - he was locked on the road in front of him and getting to his place. 

Which clearly was not all that far as they were there! Penny got out of the car and as they walked up to the massive front door, Talon was still humming along to one of the songs they had been listening to. Penny’s grin widened at his clear joy. 

When Penny walked into the house, she recalled what she had said last time. Something about an ego matching the size of the house and blushed realizing how rude she had been. Talon didn’t seem to notice as he swung his backpack onto the granite. 

“Want a snack? I don’t really know what we have… I can make us hot chocolate again though?” Talon asked while rifling through the pantry. 

“Hot chocolate works! I’m not that hungry yet, the soup I had for lunch was shockingly filling.”

“Sounds good.” Talon pulled the milk out of the fridge and set up shop by the stove. 

Penny didn’t want to just stare at him making her a snack, so she busied herself with getting her notes out and mentally planned what sort of questions she would ask. Once she had a couple, she broke the comfortable quiet. 

“Okay, when was the Battle of Bunker Hill fought?” 

“Awww really Pen, I thought we would at least get through some hot chocolate before starting the quizzing…” Talon groaned, “Umm 1775? Do I need a month or day?”

“Nah that works, but for the record it was on June 17th. Next question …”

Penny kept asking Talon questions that he got all right. At some point she got suspicious at his apparent lack of struggle. 

“Correct. Y’know Talon, you said you were falling behind in APUSH,” she teased, “it doesn’t really sound like you’re struggling with my questions at all.” 

Sheepish, Talon put down his drink, “You’re just asking questions I know the answers to. All your questions have to do with the time period we were learning weeks ago.”

“Exactly, why I’m quizzing you on them. These questions are based on content that was taught when we were working on the project. Clearly, you haven’t fallen behind at all.” 

Penny tapped her chin thoughtfully and said to herself, “hmmm, does that mean that Talon had an ulterior motive for bringing me to his place after school.”

“Not at all Perky Penny. A man of my caliber would never ask a pretty smart girl to come over to study just so he could show off his endless history knowledge to said pretty smart girl.” 

“Now was that pretty smart or pretty comma smart girl?” Penny tested, “‘cause those mean two different things.”

“It could mean both things, or just one, or none. It’s more fun not to tell you.” Talon stuck his tongue out at Penny.

Penny just rolled her eyes at him and continued asking him increasingly difficult questions that Talon still kept getting right. 

“Okay, now this is just getting infuriating. Here I am, being so kind and nice by offering you all of these meticulously crafted questions that you keep knowing the answers to immediately!” Penny exasperated, “Where’s the fun in that? No waiting to see if you’ll get it or anything?! You’re just answering these like I asked you what 2+2 is!”

“Sorry Pen, gotta flex my superb history skills,” Talon gave her a smug smile, “Let’s take a break, I clearly will be fine on this exam.”

Penny looked at Talon and immediately rolled her eyes. Why did he even invite me over if he “clearly will be fine on this exam”? He’s seriously wasting my time. Boys. She closed her eyes and took a deep breath. 

“Penny, do you like board games? I have a bunch of options… I don’t play much because Uncle Claw is usually too busy, but he still buys games he thinks look fun.”

”Who doesn’t love board games?” Penny got up from her stool and set the notes down on the giant counter. Seriously, who needed this much space in a kitchen that was rarely used?

“There all in my room, you can pick what to play,” Talon got up and led Penny to his room down the hall. She mentally named the rooms as she walked past them. 

They got to his room and the silence between the two returned. It wasn’t awkward per say but it wasn’t exactly comfortable either. It was content with an underlying tension that Penny could not place. (Talon knew exactly what it was and planned to banish it soon). 

Penny ambled around the room going to his sparse bookshelf. (She was always drawn to books, she couldn’t help that she was a bibliophile.) She picked up the comic that she had looked at last time and opened it to the first page. 

Talon padded over quietly and Penny jumped at his proximity, “Oh yeah, I was going to let you borrow that when we were done with the project. You can take it home if you like.”

“Thanks. I’ve been needing something to distract me from the constant studying and school work. I didn’t realize junior year would be this busy.”

“I felt the same until the project came up.” Talon said in a genuine tone. Penny was struck by what he had said. 

“The project was a part of school, silly. That doesn’t count as a distraction from school.”

“It distracted me plenty!” Talon professed, “That project was too much fun to put together. Especially since I got to spend more time with you.”

Penny didn’t immediately respond and blushed instead. Talon noted her silence and gosh was she always this cute when she blushed?

“I know I mentioned board games before, but a lot of these are looking like 4+ player games…” Talon drifted off, rummaging through the game cupboard that Penny hadn’t noticed the first time she had been here. “Do you like puzzles? I have a ton that I haven’t had the chance to do.”

“Absolutely! What are my options?” Penny sat down on Talon’s bed once again and put her hands on her lap, excited to see what kind of puzzles Talon would have. She was intrigued by the fact that he even owned puzzles at all, to her they didn’t really seem like something Talon would enjoy. I mean, he does want to be an engineer, but there’s only so much “putting things together” a person can stand, right?

Talon pulled out seven 1000 piece puzzles from his cupboard and set them on his bed for Penny to peruse. “These are your choices, I’ve only done four of them. The rest have been untouched,” he opened one of the ‘untouched’ puzzles, “See?”

“Ooo, I’ll pick between the untouched ones then. Can’t be giving you an advantage to this puzzle business.” Penny tutted and shook her finger at him like he was a schoolkid. “Let’s do this one! It looks hard, with the similar patterns and all.” 

Penny had picked the puzzle that Talon was hoping she would pick. It had a couple different colors, but lots of loopy circles that almost resembled flowers. Talon liked the picture and had picked it out for his birthday the year prior. 

Penny grabbed the puzzle and set out to the huge granite table where they would no doubt be puzzling. I guess the huge table does serve a greater purpose. Talon stayed in his room to return the other puzzles to their rightful place. 

When Talon had finished putting the puzzles back, he found Penny had set up shop on the table. The cover was off and propped to ensure visibility from both of them. 

“Can I unwrap it?” Penny asked giddily. Talon nodded his consent and admired her glee. 

“How do you usually do this?” Talon looked confused at the question. “Like what’s your go-to strat to start?”

“The only strat there is. Flip ‘em over and as you do, separate the edges from the rest.”

“I see your plan and raise you with another key detail. When you separate the rest, you do it by color too, that way you get as much categorization as you can before you put it together.” Penny advised. 

Talon happily agreed with her plan and went to work immediately. Once he saw a puzzle, it was hard to take his focus from it. 

Penny was not like that. She enjoyed puzzles and could usually spend a large amount of hours boring over it, but that was when she was by herself. With another person helping divvy up the tasks, she found herself getting distracted by hot chocolate or even her phone buzzing. 

But the most distracting thing was how utterly focused Talon was. He was laser-locked into sorting and was already starting to put some of the border together and a teeny-tiny bit of his tongue was poking out of his mouth. He honestly looked a little uncomfortable the way one leg was propped up on the stool while the other was dangling. His arms had to reach across his knee awkwardly, but he made the action so natural that it left Penny admiring the odd view. While he was connecting pieces, she stealthily took a picture of him, for later analysis, she reasoned. 

When she had secured her contraband, she busied herself sorting. She was more of a sorting kind of girlie where Talon was more of a putting things together girlie. They worked contentedly until Penny finished sorting. 

“I’m done sorting, anything you want me to start on in particular?” She deferred to him in this instance because she liked doing puzzles, but he clearly was the better one and would have an opinion on the best course of action.

“Whatever color you like best first works. I’m almost done with the border, I’ll help you out with your color when I’m done.” Talon said almost distractedly. 

It was strange to see him take charge in such a humble way, no peacocking about Penny asking him what to do or making a joke, just straight to the facts. 

Penny picked the purple pieces and started looking at the pictures to try to put them together. She only succeeded in putting three pieces together to form a sort of sad bit of purple flower when Talon announced that he was done with the border. 

He took stock of what Penny had done and took one look at the pieces and said, “Penny… when was the last time you did a puzzle?”

“Am I that bad?” Penny groused.

“No, but your strategy isn’t complete. Just looking at the color is a kid strategy and will only take you so far. You have to look at the shape of the pieces. Sort the type of pieces and connect as much as you can of that type before combining it with the other types of pieces.” Talon explained, “I’ve been using this method for a bit and it definitely makes putting together the puzzles much faster.”

“That’s a very robotic approach…” said Penny, searching for something to say; he had just almost insulted her and she wasn’t quite sure how to react since there was no mal-intent in his words. 

“I guess so. But if it works, I don’t see the problem in it.”

Talon continued putting the puzzle together and Penny helped where she could but she honestly wasn’t a match for Talon’s expertise. She was pretty content just watching him do his thing, so she pulled her history book out and started browsing the section that they were going to be quizzed on. 

Talon glanced up at her when he finished the next color section, “Quiz me?”

“This again? You’re gonna answer them all correctly, you’ll be fine for this quiz, I promise,” sighed Penny. 

“Then if you won’t quiz me, tell me your deepest darkest secret. I can’t puzzle in silence after all.”

“Ooo, my deepest darkest secret is that I don’t have a deepest darkest secret.”

“Pen, that’s boring,” Talon whined, “You gotta have something interesting to keep me entertained.”

“Am I just entertainment to you, Talon?” Penny answered sassily. 

Talon finally glanced up from his puzzle and looked her in the eye, “You could never be “just entertainment” to me Penny.”

“Okay, that was cringey. Never do that again.”

“Awww, are you blushing Penny?” Talon teased. 

“So what if I am?” she replied hotly. 

“I’d like that.” Talon said simply. He returned to his fervent puzzling, he really was quite good and Penny wanted to be able to say she helped him so she picked another color and started putting pieces together. 

It was a pretty quiet 15 minutes spent locked into moving pieces around and connecting things. But Talon truly was unmatched, Penny had never seen someone put a puzzle together this fast. And she wasn’t even helping!

“Looks like we finished it, Puzzler Penny,” Talon grinned happily, “I’ve been wanting to do that one for a long time and it was just as much fun as I thought it would be!”

“‘We finished’? Talon, you basically did that whole thing by yourself!” Penny scoffed, “I’m seriously impressed by your putting things together skills. I should have known you’d be a puzzle master in addition to an engineering whiz.”

Talon got kind of quiet in response to Penny’s praise and thanked her in a small voice. The kitchen had gotten awkward with Talon’s shyness but Penny recovered quicker than him. 

“Sooooo,” she drawled, “do you usually take them apart immediately? Or like leave it up for a couple of days? Oh wait, are you a frame the puzzle on the wall kind of guy?”

Talon internally thanked Penny for saving him from his internal monologue, “Uhhh, I guess I just leave it out until Uncle Claw decides he wants me to put it away so he can attempt cooking again.”

Penny looked at him quizzically. 

“Claw isn’t the best cook and usually doesn’t make meals. But sometimes he’ll hear his coworkers talking about a new delish recipe and he decides that he should attempt to make it. So, he’ll come back home with the recipe and fail spectacularly at making it. Last time, I had to clean up the mess and it took me 3 hours.” Penny gave him a look. “No. Seriously, I timed it and everything.” 

“Wow, I’m so sorry you have to deal with that… I guess I’m pretty lucky that Gadget knows to stay out of the kitchen.”

“I do the cooking in this house. It may not be restaurant quality meals, but it feeds us.” 

“I get that. I cook when I have the time but the past few weeks I’ve been a little preoccupied with just getting to winter break.” Penny responded. 

“Honestly, same. I haven’t made a proper meal in a bit, Claw’s just been bringing food back home so I’m set usually.” Talon trailed off. “All this food talk is making me hungry. Are you hungry?”

“I could eat,” Penny responded simply. 

Talon got up and opened the fridge in search of something to eat. His eyes landed on a pack of ground beef.

“You eat meat right Pen? How do you feel about burgers?”

“Ooo that sounds good! Do you need help with anything? I’d feel stupid just sitting here watching you cook for me.”

“I wouldn’t just be cooking for me,” he said with a wink, “but I think there’s some fries in the freezer if you want to put them in the oven.”

Penny blushed -- she really had to get a grip around him, she was blushing at every other word he spoke to her. 

The two busied themselves with cooking the meat, and Penny with gathering the toppings and cooking the fries. The silence was a little suffocating for Talon so he took out his phone and connected it to a speaker nearby and put his playlist on. 

The next 15 minutes of cooking were spent singing along to his favorite Coldplay songs and soon enough the food was done! They put their desired toppings onto their burgers: Penny liked hers with ketchup, the traditional lettuce leaf, and a bun, and Talon judged her for her lack of tomato with his thousand islands/cheese/pickles/lettuce burger. 

“No tomato?” He asked somewhat judgily. 

“I mean, I have the ketchup,” she replied defensively. 

“I just feel like you’re disrespecting the burger by putting something like ketchup on it. Ketchup is for hotdogs, not for a beautiful homecooked burger.”

“Homecooked burgers are whatever you want them to be. That’s why they’re homecooked.” Penny said matter-of-factly, “And stop trying to start a fight, we’re having a nice time together, let’s not spoil it by unnecessary judging.”

“Fine,” Talon muttered. He scarfed down his burger and hadn’t finished swallowing when he picked up some fries.

“Slow down, Talon. You’ll get hiccups eating too fast.”

Talon finished swallowing and pointedly put the fries in his mouth as he replied, “Now who’s trying to start a fight, Penny.” 

Penny’s response was to not give him a response and they ate their meal in relative silence, with the occasional comment about how good the burgers were. 

They cleaned up the dishes pretty quickly as Penny had been washing as they went. Talon went to go sit on the couch in the massive living room and Penny followed him and sat a normal distance apart. At least she thought it was a normal distance. The couch was so big she figured she should take one side and he would go on the other right?

“You don’t have to sit so far away from me, Penny. I don’t bite.” He then added, “Unless you want me to though.”

“No comment. So what are we watching?”

“No clue, I don’t really watch TV or movies much since I would rather play a game or y’know work on a project. Any ideas?”

“I’m afraid I have none. I’m also not the biggest movie watcher… I like books too much.”

“Do you want to go pick out another game then?” Talon said as he got up. 

“Sure!” She responded cheerily as she followed him. 

Talon combed through the closet and Penny peeked over his shoulder to see what games he had in the closet. It was mostly full of puzzles though so she had to help Talon take those out before assessing what he had. 

As she kept schlepping puzzles from the mini closet, she noticed that the closet was way deeper than she thought it should be. It seemed like the games buried in the back were endless. 

“Seems like there’s lots of options in there.”

“Yeah, there’s a good amount of them that are single player games, so I have to dig for the two player ones, or modify the one player ones… It might take a bit, you’re welcome to sit down on my bed.”

Penny sat on his bed as she watched him go through the closet. He had a pretty good butt for a guy and she watched the muscles in his back move when he leaned further into the closet. This could be my newest form of entertainment. Just watching Talon rummage in his room. I have GOT to stop having these thoughts while I’m sitting right in front of him. Oh my gosh. I’m sitting on his bed. Is it weird? How do I sit? Is he really okay with me just sitting here? This is so awkward I cannot deal with this. How do people do this normally?????

Penny was having a mini panic attack while Talon called out, “What about Mastermind? You have to guess the other person’s code in a certain number of moves or you lose.” He cut himself off, “Nah, that’s boring, we need something more challenging.” 

Talon continued to bring up options of games to play but never let Penny get in a word; he just cut himself off after explaining the game’s goal, saying it was too boring, or not challenging enough. 

Penny was getting tired of watching him, it had to have been at least 10 minutes of him going through the closet, so she laid back on his bed and closed her eyes, still listening to his constant drivel. 

She didn’t know how long she was laying there until the sound stopped, but she didn’t bother opening her eyes because she felt the bed dip a little with someone laying down next to her. Her heart quickened, but she stayed chill because she definitely had control over her emotions and would not lose her mind just because Talon was laying on the bed next to her. Nope. She was fine.

Talon had decided to flop down next to her, because going through that seemingly endless game closet was exhausting. And, it was his bed, he had just as much right to lay there as Penny did. Penny is laying on my bed. Do not panic, just play it cool. Yeah, you’re laying next to her but that’s because you’re tired too. Not for any other reason. Just stay chill. Nothing to worry about, she’s your friend right now. Nothing more nothing less. 

I’d like it to be more though.

NOPE. None of that right now. Not in this situation, there is only so much a teenage boy can handle and you’re already pushing it bud. 

Talon’s inner struggle kept his eyes open as he stared at the ceiling lost in thought. 

Penny had settled down and had lost the awkwardness she felt before. I mean, how many times had she and Kayla laid on her bed and chatted about random things. It was the same thing. But he’s a boy. And the boy you like at that. And that’s okay. Nothing has to happen, I can be content with what is happening now. The nerves can be banished.

She opened her eyes with that realization and turned her head toward Talon. 

The movement from where Penny was laying made Talon instinctively turn his head in that direction and suddenly their faces were incredibly close to each other. Not close enough to kiss without someone having to move closer, but close enough to share the same airspace. 

“Hey,” said Penny. 

Talon had no response, he was too busy staring at her lips form the word “Hey”. Who knew that hey could be such an attractive word to say, the way her lips barely moved, but were still parted in such a pretty smile… he really couldn’t get enough of it. 

Since Talon wasn’t responding, Penny felt a bit out of place and started gnawing on her lip. Noticing this, Talon quickly smiled at her. Penny’s face, of course, turned red at the sight of him smiling so close to her face. 

“So did you decide on a game?” Penny whispered.

Talon responded in kind, “No, too many options, but none were good enough.”

“That’s too bad.”

“Yeah.”

The two continued to stare at each other until they locked eyes and it became a staring contest. The switch from quietly awkward and shy to competitive and tense was instant. Neither would back down from this apparent challenge. 

Their eyes started to water around the first minute, but both of them were too determined to let the other win. Penny had tears in her eyes and Talon was trying to control his eyelids where he could get them lubricated to a certain degree. 

Then Penny had an idea that she knew was sure to make her win. But was she brave enough to do it? Maybe that was the wrong question. Was winning this staring contest more important than compromising whatever they had going on? Yes. Absolutely it was.

So Penny inched forward on the bed, a little grin starting to form while Talon was squinting oddly. When she was close enough, Talon’s eyes flew open and when her lips finally touched his, he shut them. 

“HA! I won, you closed your eyes,” she taunted in a sing-song while wiping the tears off her cheeks and blinking rapidly.

Talon rolled his eyes as he positioned his torso above hers. “You cheated,” he said simply. 

Penny flushed at the compromising position, and seemed to realize just what she got herself into. She figured that if she didn’t move, Talon might realize what he was doing. She was wrong.

One of Talon’s hands made it to Penny’s face and he cupped it carefully as his other arm was busy supporting his weight above her. He moved his face towards her in a deliberate movement and pressed his mouth against hers. 

The kiss couldn’t have lasted more than five seconds when he pulled away, but having her lips against his made time lose its meaning. They were so soft, and her hair was soft, and she was just so soft. He didn’t understand how someone could be so soft.

Penny was trying not to freak out at the pretty long kiss that they just had. She had moved her arms to hold his neck and face in place while they kissed, but he had pulled away so quickly and now her hands felt wrong around his neck so she moved them back to their place at her sides. 

Then Talon had to break the silence with false bravado, “Awww are you shy, Penny?”

One thing you did not do with Penny Brown was test her. She had a wicked competitive streak and it was something you did not want to cross. She once beat a kid up on the playground for saying girls couldn’t play soccer as well as boys and then proceeded to annihilate the rest of the boys by herself. It was one of her proudest moments, even if she had to go to the principal’s office and get banned from playing soccer on the playground. 

This was one of those “needing to prove herself” moments and prove herself she did. 

She flipped Talon under her in an instant and pinned down his arms above his head before he could react. He was a little heavy, but Gadget dragged her to the gym every week to make sure she wasn’t getting weak. (They had a family rule that if you couldn’t do a pull up you couldn’t go backpacking with the rest of the family. Backpacking was a big deal on Gadget’s side of the family.)

In a very similar position to where Talon had been moments ago, she brought her head closer to Talon’s mouth and whispered, “No, Talon. I’m not shy.” and kissed him. 

This time the kiss was longer and Penny put a little more weight into it by increasing the pressure. Talon responded to the increase in pressure by opening his mouth and biting Penny’s bottom lip softly. Penny gasped a little into his mouth and Talon continued to toy as if nothing had happened. She was a little overwhelmed by what was happening because how were they literally making out right now?!?!?!

She pulled back for a second to breathe and Talon took his hands back from her and hid his face with them. He could feel the blush on his face and could not look at Penny for fear of her reaction. 

“Now who’s shy?” Penny gloated. 

“I’m not shy… just …”

“Shy. I get it. I would be too, if I had a pretty girl making out with me on my bed.” Penny had no idea where she was getting this confidence but she was going to roll with it. 

“Uhhh, yeah,” Talon took his hands away from his face and stared up at Penny who was looking down at him with a soft smirk. How is she smirking softly? That literally makes no sense, but I’m seeing it with my own two eyes.

“Soooooo,” she dragged out, “I’ll be upfront first since you’re clearly too shy, I liked that.”

Talon didn’t really speak, just nodded his assent. 

“You’re so cute when you can’t respond,” she teased. 

“Yes, I can,” Talon said bravely. 

“Sure, you can. That’s why you nodded when I said I enjoyed kissing you.”

Talon went red again and resisted the urge to hide his face. He responded in a shaky voice, “I enjoyed kissing you too.”

Penny blushed and Talon immediately gained the upper hand when he saw her go red. 

“I’d like to do that more often. You’re a good kisser, Pen.” Talon also had no idea where the sudden confidence boost came from, but it seemed like they were trading it off and now he had the conch. 

She felt the sudden loss of confidence and tried to gather it back, but it was no use, it had been used up during the kiss. She figured that smiling in response was good enough, so she gave him a sweet smile with a side order of blush.

Talon was determined to use his confidence to the most and locked in. 

“So, would you like, maybe want to date? I like spending time with you and want to get to know you more.”

“Yes! I want to get to know you more too, it’s been really nice working with you on things and not having everything be a constant battle to prove who’s smarter.” Penny said, the calm from before had settled over her again and she could live in the moment without stressing about every single little detail. 

“Cool, umm, so what do you want to do now?” asked Talon. 

“Ooo wait, we shouldn’t make it obvious at school yet. We should wait until we’re back after winter break, that way, if things don’t work out, it won’t be awkward, and if things do work out, it’ll be fun to see everyone’s reactions.”

“Sounds good to me. I don’t want to move too fast either, I just brought it up because I like you and all, and I don’t want to stop hanging out with you when school ends.” Talon confessed. 

“I feel the same way. Maybe you can come over for Christmas dinner or something, bring Dr. Claw along too!”

“That’ll be fun to watch, they HATE each other!” Talon professed. 

“Yeah, but they’ll have to learn to play nice if we start seeing each other more often.” 

“True,” Talon chuckled, “well, it’s getting late and I don’t know when Claw will be back, so I’ll take you home?”

“I’d love that.” Penny responded as they walked out of Talon’s room, “Hey, I don’t think my family has anything planned tomorrow if you want to come over for lunch or something… We could go to the park?”

“Sounds like fun, I’ll have to ask Claw, but I’m sure he’d be fine with it, he’s honestly kind of a workaholic.”

“Uncle Gadget is too. I keep telling him he needs to take a day off and do something de-stressing, but he just keeps chugging like a machine.”

The two walked out of the mansion and towards Talon’s car. Talon made sure to suavely open the door for Penny. 

“Thank you kindly, good sir,” she mocked. 

“Of course, my lady,” he responded with a bow.

They drove and chattered amicably. When they pulled up to her apartment building, Talon pulled the car over as Penny undid her seatbelt. 

“I enjoyed today, Talon. See you soon hopefully!” She leaned in to close the gap between them and Talon, noticing that they were going to kiss again, copied her. 

“Yeah,” he said against her lips, “see you soon.”

He smiled lazily as she climbed out of his car and went up to the apartment. Talon was a gentleman and watched her get into the building safely before pulling off with a big smile on his face. 

I can’t believe she said she would date me… When is the right time to ask her to be my girlfriend? I’m so excited she’s so cute and funny, and wow I can’t believe she likes me back?!

Slow down there, bud. First go on a couple dates, when you know you’re solid you can ask her to officially be your girlfriend. Dates first, then define the relationship. 

Thanks logical Talon.

Penny was undergoing a similar mental drivel. 

He likes me. He likes me. He likes me. OH MY GOSH TALON CLAW LIKES ME BACK. OH MY GOD I KISSED TALON CLAW FIRST. What kind of stupid decision was that? Why why why??? AGHHHHHH. 

But he seemed to like it, girl. 

Silence Kayla voice. I must reflect on my actions without taking into account his reciprocation of my feelings. So that burst of confidence was totally insane and that needs to happen more often, because I cannot let that boy gain the upper hand with me. 

So true, girl. 

SHHHHH. Y’know after mulling it over, his feelings and the outcome are what matters, not the journey to get there. I should totally just forget that I initiated something because of my competitiveness. And that he teased me and caused me to sit on top of him while making out. 

WHO AM I???

Both teens were respectively freaking out over the situation, but all would be well and they would find their groove quite quickly. Obviously, the awkwardness would die out, but their feelings for each other would remain strong. (Yes, even if they get into spats on a regular basis.)

Chapter Text

Winter break ended happily, and with it began the most shocking turn of events. 

Their APUSH teacher did not think it odd for Talon and Penny to walk into class together, but doing so while chatting amicably was a bit suspicious. He put it aside to start class; after each break he offered the students a chance to switch seats if they’d like, and usually no one took it as they were already happily next to their friends. This time, Penny gathered her things from her front seat (she picked it so that she would be forced to stay awake in her first class) and moved toward the middle where Talon sat with James. 

“Can I sit here?” Penny asked James. 

“What?” James responded confusedly. 

“Just move, James. There’s a spot right in front of me that you can take instead!” Talon gestured happily. 

James was floored that Talon had asked him to move for Penny. They hated each other and now they wanted to sit next to each other. Not to mention that Penny was the one that moved to Talon? If anything, Penny was avoiding getting into verbal spats with Talon but now she was going to sit next to him for the foreseeable future???

Mr. APUSH was beyond words, but seeing the expressions of his students he saw that they were as shocked as he was. So he did what any good teacher does. He started the lesson. “Alright class, today we are going to learn about strategies for the AP test coming up…”

When class ended Mr. APUSH went to his desk, pulled out his phone, and texted the teacher group chat. 

“THE METROPOLITE LEADERS”

APUSHMEOFFACLIFF: Boy oh boy, are you all in for the shock of this year.

Tickin’meoff: It can’t be as bad as the breakup between Camille and Brett. The grip that breakup had on my class was unbearable.

Sueme: Don’t EVEN. My kids were talking about it and they barely have any classes with them!

Slicker?Ihardlyknowher: I feel like I may know but I will keep my hypothesis to myself in favor of watching the reactions.

Mr. Quimby: You say the weirdest things, Slick. 

ChittyChittyChangChang: He really does… I am excited for the surprise though!

APUSHMEOFFACLIFF: You won’t see it in your classroom.

MademoiselleDubois: ooooooo a hint!

Tickin’meoff: Well, I will keep my eyes open for this “shock of the year” but I must welcome my class. 

APUSHMEOFFACLIFF: You won’t have to keep them open long!

Mr. Quimby: You say the weirdest things, Joe.

Mr. Clockmaker put his phone down to welcome his class and noticed that the seating arrangement had changed slightly. A couple more people sat up front and the back row looked almost empty. He scanned the classroom and noticed who moved where and saw that Talon had moved up next to Penny. Odd, but Talon likes to antagonize Penny and perhaps wanted a better vantage point. 

He started his lesson as usual, the students were a little more chatty today, probably because of the return from winter break. He quieted them down and resumed his lesson. But there was still someone talking. 

“Care to share what you are whispering about, Talon?” Mr. Clockmaker said abruptly.

Talon jumped a little, “Uh, no sir, I was just explaining this problem to Penny.”

“Penny would do well to learn the material on her own, unless you would like to be her tutor now…” Mr. Clockmaker smiled evilly, he loved creating chaos and this was sure to cause an explosion.

“I’d like that very much Mr. Clockmaker. I really struggled last semester and I want to make sure I keep my grades up this semester!” Penny said cheerfully. 

To say Mr. Clockmaker was stunned was an understatement. He gaped at the two children and a single thought ran through his head. This must be the shock of the year.

When the class started shifting uncomfortably, he resumed his lesson as if nothing had happened. He had been teaching long enough to go on auto-pilot for a bit while his mind flew through the implications of this new relationship.

“THE METROPOLITE LEADERS”

Tickin’meoff: I was proven wrong. It can be as bad as that breakup.

APUSHMEOFFACLIFF: HAHAHA told you.

ChittyChittyChangChang: awww :( I want to know!

APUSHMEOFFACLIFF: Quimbs, you’re next. 

Mr. Quimby: That was rather ominous, Joe.

With the ominous text from Mr. APUSH, Quimby was ready to face the music. Something that was as awful as that terrible breakup was on the horizon and he had to be prepared for it. Alas, preparing never did end up doing anything for him; he still got a bomb to the face.

He started class as normal, with a quick icebreaker about what everyone did over winter break. Most everyone had normal responses, but their body language when Talon and Penny answered the question was tense to say the least. They were all silent and waiting with baited breath to hear what they had to say. 

“I had lots of hot chocolate and started a new comic!” Penny replied cheerily. 

“I made an experiment to see if I could make the perfect hot chocolate and succeeded.” Talon looked at Penny as he said this and Penny blushed back at him. 

“Sounds like everyone had a fulfilling break then!” Quimby turned to his computer and pressed the next slide. Meanwhile, the rest of the class was rioting (quietly) over the new tidbits they had just been given. 

Class went by smoothly, and Quimby was unsettled by the lack of … well anything really. It was a perfectly normal class, nothing out of the ordinary. He went to get his phone and typed quickly in the group chat. 

“THE METROPOLITE LEADERS”

Mr. Quimby: I regret to inform you, Joe, that nothing out of the ordinary occurred in my classroom.

APUSHMEOFFACLIFF: You’ve gotta be blind then.

Sueme: Honestly, I’m not shocked that the old geezer didn’t notice. He’s too old for figuring out high school drama. He only knew about the Camille/Brett breakup because it happened in his classroom.

APUSHMEOFFACLIFF: Fair point.

“Um, Mr. Quimby?”

“Yes, dear?” he responded while putting down his phone. Miss Sue could be quite mean. He hadn’t reached geezer status yet!

“We just wanted to thank you for not making a huge deal out of Talon and I being together and all. The other teachers were pretty awkward, Mr. Clockmaker especially… So thanks, we really appreciate it!” Penny said with Talon by her side. 

“Ah,” Mr. Quimby responded while Penny and Talon jetted out of there. 

The proverbial bomb had blown up in his face, and he was disappointed that he had to be told. He thought he was a rather sharp fellow and would have been one of the first to notice, but he supposed that he was aging and that maybe 75 was getting up there. 

“THE METROPOLITE LEADERS”

Mr. Quimby: I see now. I was informed by them as they were leaving class. 

MademoiselleDubois: oooooo another hint! the mystery continues

Sueme: AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

APUSHMEOFFACLIFF: Why did they even tell you?

Mr. Quimby: They were thanking me for my lack of reaction.

Sueme: HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

Lunch happened, and that was where most of the student body really saw what exactly had the AP students in a tizzy. There were lots of shouts and jeers, typical of a high school lunch area, so the teachers who had not yet heard of the “shock of the year” were not alarmed. 

The next class period, 4th, began and ended quite quietly. The group chat was quiet save for one person.

“THE METROPOLITE LEADERS”

Chitty Chitty Bang Bang: I knew that nothing would happen, but I’m still disappointed :(

APUSHMEOFFACLIFF: Teach a better subject then.

Sueme: Foul play. You can’t say that to Kelsey, she’s too pure to be mean to.

Mr. Quimby: You made her sad, Joe. 

APUSHMEOFFACLIFF: I’m sorry Kelsey, if it’ll make you feel better I can DM you?

Chitty Chitty Bang Bang: It’s alright, I’m sure I’ll hear about it later :(

Tickin’meoff: Want to get coffee when school’s out Kels?

Chitty Chitty Bang Bang: … yeah :(

APUSHMEOFFACLIFF: Good luck dealing with your monster Frankenslick.

Slicker?Ihardlyknowher: Uninspired joke bud. Go apologize to Kelsey in person.

5th period was the AP Bio period, and Dr. Slickstein had his suspicions about what he would receive in the class period. As his students filed in, they took their seats and loudly gossiped about the most recent development. When said recent development walked in, the class went silent until they made it to their seats and then all hell broke loose. 

“Dr. Slick this is your fault!”

“How is this even a thing?”

“You guys hate each other. Is this some sort of joke?”

“My favorite enemies to lovers is finally canon!”

“I can’t believe it only took Penny one project to fall head-over-heels for that dumbass”

“Alright, alright, settle down class.” Slick raised his voice. “Now, I’m sure we’re all shocked at the new relationship between Talon and Penny, but frankly, it’s none of our business. If they want to tell you they can, but otherwise, stay out of it.”

“Thanks, Dr. Slick,” Talon muttered. 

“Now, why don’t we see what’s coming up soon. So the AP test is a couple months away, so I expect everyone to know all the content on the exam by March, and we’ll have the month of April to review everything. Because the AP exam is in the first week of May, the rest of that week will be empty and you can all pick a movie to watch throughout that last week as a respite against the other APs I’m sure you’ll be taking. There will be no final project, just do your best on the AP exam and I’ll be happy.”

He lectured the rest of class, as he usually did, and the class was relatively tame. So when he pulled out his phone, only a couple students noticed. He filmed the room, silent, as they worked on a worksheet and sent it to the teacher group chat. 

“THE METROPOLITE LEADERS”

Slicker?Ihardlyknowher: Just a normal day for the AP Bio class. Nothing out of the ordinary to see here.

Tickin’meoff: How are they so quiet? I had to yell at them several times to get them to stop chatting!

Slicker?Ihardlyknowher: My lectures must just be THAT good.  ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

MademoiselleDubois: I think I have deduced what they are referring to, but I, like Dr. Slickstein, will keep my mouth shut until I get my confirmation…

Mademoiselle Dubois was watching her door, seeing if she was going to see them walk in together. She knew it was two people, she knew that Mrs. Chang wouldn’t be seeing them, meaning they wouldn’t be in her classroom, and she knew that Dr. Slick somehow had a hand in orchestrating them together. Dubois waiting for the couple to walk in. 

She watched her walk in, but he wasn’t with her. Weird, maybe they would sit next to each other in class, or they were trying to divert attention away from themselves. Then, he walked in and took his normal seat far away from her. 

Dubois was upset to say the least. Shattered to say the most. She was so sure that it was them. Mr. Clockmaker referenced them in the group chat! Camille and Brett just had to have gotten back together. She thought Slick had put them in a group together for that silly project and she knew that only Camille took engineering as her elective, so Brett wouldn’t have been there. She had all the pieces and she had seen the puzzle, but it was wrong.

Dejected, she started class, not noticing that the seating arrangement had changed slightly and that Talon and Penny were now sitting at the same table grouping. 

It wasn’t until the end of class when Penny and Talon walked out of the classroom hand in hand that she realized she had all the pieces correct and the couple wrong.

“THE METROPOLITE LEADERS”

MademoiselleDubois: My deduction was wrong, but I saw them holding hands walking out of my classroom. C’est la vie, je suppose.

Sueme: Okay, since school’s over we can talk about it now right? Cause Kayla and Mal were yapping non-stop about it and I’ve heard too much information about those damn kids than I care to know.

APUSHMEOFFACLIFF: OHHHH, I was wondering how you knew Sue, that explains it. I’ve heard Kayla through my door in the morning and she terrifies me. Every day I thank God that she decided not to take APUSH.

Sueme: She isn’t that bad, especially if she was talking to Mal, they balance each other out quite well… I wouldn’t be surprised if they were our next couple. 

Chitty Chitty Bang Bang: If anyone wants to get coffee with Clock and I they are welcome to join us!!!

Tickin’meoff: Not Joe though.

APUSHMEOFFACLIFF: damn